{"id":13253,"date":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=13253"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","slug":"american-ballet-theatre-anne-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/american-ballet-theatre-anne-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ballet Theatre’s Orbit: Anne Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABT Negro Unit\u2019s Black Ritual<\/em> and Anne Jones<\/b><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Click to view American Ballet Theatre; Negro Unit and Black Ritual Orbit<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The American Ballet Theatre\u2019s all-Black Negro Unit, which was founded in 1940 as part of the Federal Theatre Project, included Anne Jones<\/a><\/strong>, along with Edith Ross<\/a><\/strong>, Elizabeth Thompson<\/a><\/strong>, Lavinia Williams<\/a><\/strong>, Lawaune Kennard<\/a><\/strong>, Dorothy Williams<\/a><\/strong>, Evelyn Pilcher<\/a><\/strong>, Valerie Black<\/a><\/strong>, Leonore \u201cAzelean\u201d Cox<\/a><\/strong>, Edith Hurd<\/a><\/strong>, Mabel Hart<\/a><\/strong>, Maudelle Bass<\/a><\/strong>, Clementine Collinwood<\/a><\/strong>, Carole Ash, Bernice Willis<\/a><\/strong>, and Muriel Cook<\/a><\/strong>. The Negro Unit only performed one ballet during its existence\u2014Black Ritual<\/em> or Obeah<\/em>, which was choreographed by Agnes de Mille and premiered in 1940.<\/p>\n

More about Anne Jones<\/h2>\n

Born in 1905, Anne Jones trained with Alexandre Gavrilov (Ballets Russes), Ted Shawn, and Bill \u201cBojangles\u201d Robinson. She taught at and ran a dance school in Harlem before and after performing in de Mille\u2019s <\/span>Black Ritual<\/span><\/i>; Lena Horne was a student of this school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones passed away in 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Please note that some sources have listed Jones\u2019 first name as \u201cAnn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Black Ritual (Obeah), American Ballet Theatre<\/a><\/strong>
\nMaher, Erin K. \u201cBallet, Race, and Agnes de Mille\u2019s Black Ritual.\u201d <\/span>The Musical Quarterly<\/span><\/i>, vol. 97, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 390-42<\/span>8.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McClain Groff<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Madeline Crawford<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABT Negro Unit\u2019s Black Ritual and Anne Jones The American Ballet Theatre\u2019s all-Black Negro Unit, which was founded in 1940 as part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"universe-template.php","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":[284,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abt-negro-unit-constellation","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13253","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\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13253"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15563,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13253\/revisions\/15563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}