{"id":15522,"date":"2022-02-18T15:28:58","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T15:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=15522"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:21","slug":"louis-johnsons-orbit-black-nativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2022\/02\/18\/louis-johnsons-orbit-black-nativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Johnson’s Orbit: Black Nativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis Johnson and Black Nativity<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Though Carmen de Lavallade<\/strong> and Alvin Ailey<\/strong> were initially hired as choreographers for Black Nativity<\/em>, the two left and were replaced with Louis Johnson. His work for the play was not \u201cinherently flawed,\u201d but rather it was considered \u201ccompletely devoid of ingenuity or inspiration.\u201d This is said to be because \u201ceven the most consummate artists would have trouble standing up to the swelling, surging gospel numbers\u201d and due to the limiting nature of the production\u2019s small stage.<\/div>\n
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During this production, Johnson worked again with Cleo Quitman<\/a>, whom he would have interacted with while creating Folk Impressions<\/em> for her company, New York Negro Ballet.<\/p>\n

More about Black Nativity<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\"Negro
Black Nativity<\/em> in Rotterdam (1962). Photo via Wikipedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Black Nativity<\/em>, in which Christ\u2019s birth story is refigured with Black characters, is a gospel play created by Langston Hughes<\/strong>. The production, directed by Vinnette Carroll, ran for four weeks at the 41st Street Theatre, opening on December 11, 1961. The play reinforced the historical accuracy of a Black Christ and toured extensively throughout Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Langston Hughes by Harold Bloom<\/a>
\n<\/a>Black Nativity, Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

Louis Johnson and Black Nativity Though Carmen de Lavallade and Alvin Ailey were initially hired as choreographers for Black Nativity, the two […]<\/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-15522","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\/15522","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=15522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15525,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15522\/revisions\/15525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}