{"id":13401,"date":"2021-12-01T02:52:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T02:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=13401"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:22","slug":"sylvester-campbells-orbit-new-york-negro-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/12\/01\/sylvester-campbells-orbit-new-york-negro-ballet\/","title":{"rendered":"Sylvester Campbell&#8217;s Orbit: New York Negro Ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Sylvester Campbell and the New York Negro Ballet<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the young age of 18, <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/01\/14\/sylvester-campbell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sylvester Campbell<\/a> joined the New York Negro Ballet with the help of his cousin, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/barbara-wright\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barbara Wright<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who was also in the company. The company\u2019s first official performance was on May 19, 1957 at the Seventh Annual Choreographers Night. Shortly after this debut, they toured England and Scotland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Campbell, alongside many other influential dancers in NYNB including <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/06\/08\/thelma-hill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thelma Hill<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/08\/17\/cleo-quitman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cleo Quitman<\/a>, were to perform throughout the UK, in <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New Castle, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and Cardiff. Their diverse repertoire included classics such as <em>Bluebird Pas de Deux<\/em> as well as more current pieces such as <em>Folk Impressions<\/em> by <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2018\/03\/05\/louis-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Louis Johnson<\/a> and other pieces by Ernest Parham and Joseph Rickard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, when they arrived in London, the performance fell through due to lack of funds. While some in the defunct company returned back to the States, others\u2014including Campbell\u2014 decided to stay. Jack Carter,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who would often make works in which Campbell performed, helped Campbell acquire jobs dancing with the` BBC.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.balletreview.com\/images\/Ballet_Review_42-3_Sylvester_Campbell.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A Conversation with Sylvester Campbell, Ballet Review, pg 24-34<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/barbara-wright\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Barbara Wright, MoBBallet<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/16\/sylvester-campbell-and-jones-haywood-school-of-dance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Jones Haywood and Sylvester Campbell, MoBBallet<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>More about the New York Negro Ballet<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/download-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13392 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/download-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"343\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The New York Negro Ballet was founded as the Ballet American in 1957 by <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/08\/04\/ward-fleming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ward Fleming<\/a> and Thelma Hill. It received financial support from Lucy Thorndike and Theodore Handcock. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although their earliest recorded performance was in 1954 at the Brandon House, their first official performance was in May 1957 at the 7th annual Choreographers Night, presented by New York Ballet Club. The group performed works by Louis Johnson (<em>Folk Impressions <\/em>and <em>Variations<\/em>), Graham Johnson (<em>Raisin&#8217; Cane<\/em>) as well as classics such as the <em>Waltz, Blue Bird Pas de Deux<\/em> and <em>Theme and Rhapsody<\/em>. The New York Negro Ballet company was not restricted to the states. After their official first show, they had an international tour of England and Scotland. In Glasgow, they performed <em>Raisin&#8217; Cane<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Harlot<\/em> and <em>Mardi Gras, <\/em>which was created by Ernest Parham. Unfortunately, in the middle of this tour, the company was forced to disband after the death of Lucy Thorndike, who provided financial support.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Other influential members of this company include <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/09\/05\/anthony-bassae\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anthony Bassae<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/charles-neal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charles Neal<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2018\/10\/01\/elizabeth-ann-thompson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elizabeth Thompson<\/a>, and many other.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.balletreview.com\/images\/Ballet_Review_42-3_Sylvester_Campbell.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A Conversation with Sylvester Campbell, Ballet Review, pg 24-34<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/10\/04\/1957-ward-fleming-founds-ballet-americananew-york-negro-ballet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ward Fleming Founds Ballet Americana, MoBBallet<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/barbara-wright\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Barbara Wright, MoBBallet<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/16\/sylvester-campbell-and-jones-haywood-school-of-dance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Jones-Haywood and Sylvester Campbell, MoBBallet<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/download.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-13412\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/download.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"111\" height=\"79\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/download.png 266w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/download-230x164.png 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 111px) 100vw, 111px\" \/><\/a> Fatmata Nallo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sylvester Campbell and the New York Negro Ballet At the young age of 18, Sylvester Campbell joined the New York Negro Ballet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"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":[281,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sylvester-campbell-constellation","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13401","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\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13401"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15270,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13401\/revisions\/15270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}