{"id":11733,"date":"2021-06-02T20:26:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T20:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=11733"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","slug":"elmer-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/06\/02\/elmer-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Elmer Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elmer “Skeets” Ball<\/h2>\n

Katherine Dunham Company
\nAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater
\nAustralian Ballet
\nTrockadero Gloxinia Ballet Company<\/h2>\n
\n
\"\"
Photo via The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>, 1988.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elmer \u201cSkeets\u201d Ball was born ca. 1936 and raised in West Philadelphia. He trained at the Judimar School and received his academic education from West Philadelphia High School and later Howard University. After graduating, Ball decided to pursue the art form he had developed at the Judimar School. During his more than 30-year career, Ball \u201cperformed with just about every major black choreographer in the United States,\u201d said The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

With companies like the Katherine Dunham Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Australian Ballet, and Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet Company, Ball toured around the world, performing in Europe, Africa, and Australia. During the 1960s, Ball, declared the \u201ctoast of Paris\u201d by his biographer, performed in France under the professional name \u201cMatthew Cameron,\u201d utilizing his fluent French. During his time in Europe, he worked for Swedish television and Italian filmmakers and was a member of a group who performed for the Queen of England.<\/p>\n

In the first half of the 1970s, Ball danced in Australia, including performances with the Australian Ballet.<\/p>\n

In an effort to be a \u201ccomplete artist,\u201d Ball studied acting improvisation with Joseph Papp, Joan Hazel Bryant, and Marvin Nelson and appeared in several plays: Kwamina<\/em> on Broadway (though he is not listed in the production\u2019s cast) and Langston Hughes\u2019 Black Nativity<\/em> at New York\u2019s Shakespeare Festival. (Coincidentally, Ball was said to have spent time in North Africa with Hughes.)<\/p>\n

The dancer returned to Philadelphia in the late 1970s to choreograph, teach, and design costumes. As a choreographer, Ball was given an award from the National Create-a-Drama Laboratory for Research in the Related Arts for his \u201cgreat masterpiece\u201d Arcanus Spirits<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Teaching, Ball was known for his investment in the lives and wellbeing of his students; it was said that Ball “instilled pride in scores of young men, took them off the streets, and got them to dance ballet\u201d (Philadelphia Daily News<\/em>). He taught at Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts and the Dunham technique at Juda Dance Company, also in Philadelphia. He spent three years as the ballet master of the New Freedom Theater.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ball died at the age of 52 on November 27\/29, 1988 in Center City, Philadelphia.* Noted as \u201cglamorous,\u201d \u201cgraceful,\u201d and \u201celoquent,\u201d Ball was honored with a memorial featuring dances performed by his students.<\/div>\n
\n

*There are disparate records of Ball\u2019s date of death.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dancers Remember Elmer Ball, Philadelphia Daily News<\/a>
\nDance: A Chance to try their hands at choreography, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nElmer \u2018Skeets\u2019 Ballet, 52, a leading dance figure, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nInvitation to the dance, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>
\nElmer Ball, Noted Choreographer, Philadelphia Daily News<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elmer “Skeets” Ball Katherine Dunham Company Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Australian Ballet Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet Company Elmer \u201cSkeets\u201d Ball was born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11735,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733\/revisions\/11735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}