{"id":17403,"date":"2023-02-03T19:13:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T19:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=17403"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:20","slug":"from-ballet-to-broadway-and-black-lew-leslies-blackbirds-of-1939-marion-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2023\/02\/03\/from-ballet-to-broadway-and-black-lew-leslies-blackbirds-of-1939-marion-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"From Ballet to Broadway and Black & Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1939: Marion Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Ballet to Broadway and Black and Marion Brown<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Visit Marion Brown’s Orbit in From Ballet To Broadway And Black<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marion Brown was a member of the American Negro Ballet since its debut in 1937. Brown performed in numerous Broadway shows with one of them being Lew Leslie\u2019s <\/span>Blackbirds<\/span><\/i> of 1939 <\/span><\/i><\/a>where she performed as a dancer<\/span> with Von Grona\u2019s Swing Ballet. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1939, Playbill<\/a>
\nMarion Brown, MoBBallet\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

More about Marion Brown\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Marion Brown was a member of the\u00a0American Negro Ballet<\/a>, which also featured\u00a0Al Bledger<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Harry Young<\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Hazel Spence<\/a>. Brown appeared in several Broadway shows:\u00a0<\/span>Gypsy Love<\/em>\u00a0(1911),\u00a0High Jinks\u00a0<\/em>(1913),\u00a0Lew Leslie\u2019s Blackbirds of 1939<\/em>\u00a0(1939), and\u00a0This is the Army<\/em>\u00a0(1942).<\/p>\n

See more.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Marion Brown, MoBBallet\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

More about Von Grona\u2019s Swing Ballet<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Eugene Von Grona trained in dance in Germany and arrived in New York City in 1928. He formed the American Negro Ballet in 1934 after seeing the zeal of the artists working in Harlem, noting the new type of dance energy he saw in them that was lacking in European dancers. He thought that the dancers he found for his company \u201cdidn\u2019t have the opportunity\u201d for technique classes and so he gave it to them at the American Negro Ballet. ANB was the first professional company to feature concert dance with Black members on a scale that garnered acceptance from the media as well as criticism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They used the term \u201cballet\u201d to describe all the dance they were doing, though not a classical ballet company. In 1939, members of the company performed alongside the New York Negro Symphony Orchestra; these members were Valerie Cavell<\/a>, Marion Brown<\/a>, Beryl Clarke<\/a>, Viola Gibson, Dorothy Jones<\/a>, Harriet Oliver, Evelyn Pilcher<\/a>, Edith Ross<\/a>, Pearl Spears, Hazel Spence<\/a>, Ettie Stephens, Willard Taylor, Elizabeth Thompson<\/a>, Lavinia Williams<\/a>, Wahneta Talley, Teddy Allen, Alfred Bledger<\/a>, Jon Edward, Anthony Fleming<\/a>, Frank Green, Coleman Hill<\/a>, James Smith, and Harry Young<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Which was the first?” A historical essay on the first Black Dance Company in the USA<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\" Morinsola Tinubu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Ballet to Broadway and Black and Marion Brown Marion Brown was a member of the American Negro Ballet since its debut […]<\/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":[301,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-ballet-to-broadway-and-black","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17403","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=17403"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18757,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17403\/revisions\/18757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}