{"id":17709,"date":"2023-02-19T18:15:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T18:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=17709"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:19","slug":"billy-wilson-orbit-delores-browne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2023\/02\/19\/billy-wilson-orbit-delores-browne\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Wilson Orbit: Delores Browne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Wilson and Delores Browne<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Return Back to Billy Wilson’s orbit in The Constellation Project<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Delores Browne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delores Browne was one of Philadelphia\u2019s first professional Black ballerinas. Billy Wilson and Browne were casted in the first performance of Antony Tudor\u2019s <\/span>Offenback in the Underworld<\/span><\/i> in 1954.\u00a0 The ballet was described as a \u201chumorous story about the flirtatious interactions among celebrities at a 1870s French cafe, [and] is filled with colorful characters and costumes.\u00a0 It culminates with a sultry and exhilarating chorus line of high kicking known as the \u2018can-can\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Since its opening night, Tudor\u2019s ballet has been performed by American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Ballet West, and National Ballet of Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Arthur Mitchell: Harlem’s Ballet Trailblazer, Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions<\/a><\/strong>
\nDelores Browne, MOBBallet<\/a><\/strong>
\nDelores Browne, John Jones, and Billy Wilson perform in Antony Tudor\u2019s Offenbach in the Underworld, MOBBallet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

More about Delores Browne<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Delores Browne was one of Philadelphia\u2019s first professional Black ballerinas. Born on March 30, 1935 in Philadelphia, Browne loved ballet from an early age.\u00a0 When an aunt offered to pay for lessons when she was 9, Browne struggled to find a ballet school that would teach her until finally starting at the racially integrated Ballet Club at Barratt Middle School.\u00a0 She later studied under Marion Cuyjet<\/a><\/strong> at the Judimar School<\/a><\/strong>, and at 14, was awarded a scholarship to continue her ballet education.\u00a0 She eventually became one of six Black students accepted to the School of American Ballet, and later, a member of the New York Negro Ballet<\/a><\/strong> in 1957.\u00a0 She performed at an Alvin Ailey and Ernest Parham recital alongside dancers like Nat Horne<\/a><\/strong>, John Jones<\/a><\/strong>, Georgia Collins<\/a><\/strong>, and more.\u00a0 <\/span>See more.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Arthur Mitchell: Harlem’s Ballet Trailblazer, Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions<\/a><\/strong>
\nDelores Browne, MOBBallet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Anna Owens<\/p>\n



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

Billy Wilson and Delores Browne Delores Browne was one of Philadelphia\u2019s first professional Black ballerinas. Billy Wilson and Browne were casted in […]<\/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":[302,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-wilson-constellation","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17709","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=17709"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18838,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17709\/revisions\/18838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}