{"id":13268,"date":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=13268"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","slug":"american-ballet-theatre-edith-hurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/american-ballet-theatre-edith-hurd\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ballet Theatre’s Orbit: Edith Hurd"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABT Negro Unit\u2019s Black Ritual<\/em> and Edith Hurd<\/b><\/h2>\n
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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 Edith Hurd<\/a><\/strong>, along with Lawaune Kennard<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Lavinia Williams<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Anne Jones<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Dorothy Williams<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Elizabeth Thompson<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Evelyn Pilcher<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Edith Ross<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0Leonore<\/strong> \u201cAzelean\u201d Cox<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0Mabel Hart<\/a><\/strong>, Maudelle Bass<\/strong><\/a>, Clementine Collinwood<\/strong><\/a>, Carole Ash<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Bernice Willis<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> and Muriel Cook<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span>\u00a0The 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

Edith Hurd performed with members of <\/span>Black Ritual<\/span><\/i> in other works. Hurd and Bernice Johnson joined in the <\/span>original Broadway cast of <\/span>Swingin\u2019 the Dream<\/span><\/i>, which premiered in 1939. In the same year, she, Edith Ross, and Muriel Cook were part of the original cast of Lew Leslie\u2019s<\/span> Blackbirds of 1939.<\/span><\/i> She then performed with Dorothy Williams, Valerie Black, Edith Hurd, Mabel Anderson, and Evelyn Pilcher in <\/span>Carmen Jones <\/span><\/i>in 1943.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More about Edith Hurd<\/b><\/h2>\n

Edith Hurd was born in 1916 and was a member of the Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre. S<\/span>he performed in the original Broadway casts of Lew Leslie\u2019s <\/span>Blackbirds of 1939<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Swingin\u2019 the Dream<\/span><\/i> (1939), <\/span>\u2018Op-O\u2019-Me Thumb<\/span><\/i> (1924), and <\/span>The Will O\u2019 the Wisp<\/span><\/i> (1923). Hurd was also featured in <\/span>Carmen Jones<\/span><\/i> on Broadway, which ran from December 1943 to February 1945.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hurd passed away in 1987.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Black Ritual (Obeah), American Ballet Theatre<\/a><\/strong>
\nEdith Hurd, Playbill<\/a><\/strong>
\nThe Complete Books of 1930s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Caprice Turchiano<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

ABT Negro Unit\u2019s Black Ritual and Edith Hurd 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-13268","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\/13268","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=13268"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15562,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13268\/revisions\/15562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}