{"id":13278,"date":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=13278"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","slug":"american-ballet-theatre-muriel-cook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/american-ballet-theatre-muriel-cook\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ballet Theatre’s Orbit: Muriel Cook"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABT Negro Unit\u2019s Black Ritual<\/em> and Muriel Cook<\/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 Muriel Cook<\/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>, Edith Hurd<\/strong><\/a>, Mabel Hart<\/a><\/strong>, Maudelle Bass<\/strong><\/a>, Clementine Collinwood<\/strong><\/a>, Carole Ash<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> and Bernice Willis<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span>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

Muriel Cook <\/span>performed with members of <\/span>Black Ritual<\/span><\/i> in other works.<\/span> Cook and Leonore \u201cAzelean\u201d Cox were both members of the original Broadway cast of <\/span>Flying Colors<\/span><\/i>, which opened in 1932. Then in 1939, Muriel Cook, Clementine Collingwood, Lawaune Kennard, Edith Hurd, and Bernice Johnson performed in the original Broadway cast of <\/span>Swingin\u2019 the Dream<\/span><\/i>. In the same year, Cook, Edith Ross, and Edith Hurd were part of the original cast of Lew Leslie\u2019s<\/span> Blackbirds.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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More about Muriel Cook<\/b><\/h2>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Born in 1915, Muriel Cook was a member of the Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre. She was a part of the original cast of Agnes de Mille\u2019s <\/span>Black Ritual<\/span><\/i> (1940). Cook performed in the original Broadway casts of <\/span>Flying Colors<\/span><\/i> (1932), <\/span>Lew Leslie\u2019s Blackbirds of 1939<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Swingin\u2019 the Dream<\/span><\/i> (1939), and <\/span>Big White Fog<\/span><\/i> (as Claudine Adams, 1940). Cook worked as a singer, performing in Harlem clubs, at Broadway revues, and on tour in South America and Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

She passed away in 1976.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cBlack Ritual\u201d Ballet by Agnes de Mille for the Ballet Theatre, Museum of the City of New York<\/a><\/strong>
\nMuriel Cook, Playbill<\/a><\/strong>
\nBass, Maudelle, with Muriel Cook, Lawaune Kennard, and Dorothy Williams in Black Ritual (Obeah), Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library<\/a><\/strong>
\nMaher, Erin K. \u201cBallet, Race, and Agnes de Mille\u2019s Black Ritual.\u201d\u00a0The Musical Quarterly<\/i>, vol. 97, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 390-428.<\/p>\n

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Caprice Turchiano<\/p>\n

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

ABT Negro Unit\u2019s Black Ritual and Muriel Cook 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-13278","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\/13278","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=13278"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15556,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions\/15556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}