{"id":15510,"date":"2022-02-18T14:44:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=15510"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:21","slug":"louis-johnsons-orbit-james-thurston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2022\/02\/18\/louis-johnsons-orbit-james-thurston\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Johnson’s Orbit: James Thurston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis Johnson and James Thurston<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

Louis Johnson and James Thurston worked closely together during Treemonisha<\/em>, for which Johnson was choreographer. Thurston, previously a dancer with the New York Negro Ballet, a company for which Johnson choreographed, served as assistant choreographer, dance captain, and dancer for Treemonisha<\/em>. The reprisal of Scott Joplin\u2019s 1911 opera premiered October 21, 1975 on Broadway. Joplin\u2019s creation was largely unknown during his lifetime and only officially premiered in 1972.<\/p>\n

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

James Thurston, MoBBallet<\/a>
\nTreemonisha, Playbill<\/a>
\nTreemonisha, Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n

More about James Thurston<\/h2>\n
\n

Before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Washington DC-native James Thurston was a member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canada\u2019s oldest ballet company, and the New York Negro Ballet, which was known as Ballet Americana during his time, ca. 1959.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thurston was in the original DTH casts of Arthur Mitchell\u2019s\u00a0Spiritual Suite<\/em>\u00a0(1970) and\u00a0Fun and Games<\/em>\u00a0(1971).<\/div>\n
Thurston was also a member of George Faison\u2019s company ca. 1974.<\/div>\n
In 1975, he was an original cast member, assistant choreographer, and dance captain for the Broadway show\u00a0Treemonisha<\/em>.<\/div>\n
\n

Thurston was a founding faculty member of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

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

Which was the First?\u2014a historical essay on the first Black Dance Company in the USA<\/a>
\nDance Theatre of Harlem Repertory List, Columbia University Libraries<\/a>
\nAn Alumna Reflects on Duke Ellington School of the Arts\u2019 Founding Years of Activism and Artistry, Yvette Heyliger<\/a>
\nJames Thurston, Playbill<\/a>
\nDance: Faison Company, The New York Times<\/a>
\nWinnipeg Ballet To Perform At Dr. Peoples\u2019 Inauguration, Clarion-Ledger<\/a>
\nSoul Dancing at Center Was Just Too Much, Daily News<\/a>
\nWashingtonians Dig Ballet\u2026, The Pittsburgh Courier<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

Louis Johnson and James Thurston Louis Johnson and James Thurston worked closely together during Treemonisha, for which Johnson was choreographer. Thurston, previously […]<\/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":[288,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-louis-johnson-constellation-universe","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510","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=15510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15511,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions\/15511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}