{"id":17781,"date":"2022-12-05T19:36:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T19:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=17781"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:20","slug":"billy-wilson-orbit-west-side-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2022\/12\/05\/billy-wilson-orbit-west-side-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Wilson Orbit: West Side Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Wilson and West Side Story<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Return Back to Billy Wilson’s orbit in The Constellation Project<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBilly Wilson performed as Juano in the original London production of West Side Story<\/em> in New York in 1957. He was the only black dancer cast for the production. During Billy\u2019s performance in West Side Story<\/em>, Madame Sonia Gaskill noticed him and invited him to join the Dutch National Ballet as a soloist in Europe. He accepted that opportunity and although it was uncommon, he became a Black dancer in the role of soloist in a classical ballet company. This was this opportunity that led Billy Wilson to Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Left Picture: Cover of Original 1957 West Side Story<\/em><\/span>
\nSources:<\/strong>
\nA Celebration of the Life of Billy Wilson, dancer, choreographer, director, educator<\/span><\/a>
\nBilly Wilson | Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater<\/span><\/a>
\nProduction of West Side Story | Theatricalia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

More about West Side Story<\/em>:<\/span><\/h2>\n

West Side Story<\/em> by the London Company was envisioned and directed by Jerome Robbins. Jerome thought of remaking Romeo and Juliet in New York City. As a Broadway musical it was said to have \u201cushered in a new musical era\u201d. It was performed for two years in the US and for almost three years in London.\u00a0<\/span>
\nCOMPOSER: Leonard Bernstein<\/span>
\nPLAYWRIGHT: Arthur Laurents<\/span>
\nLYRICIST: Stephen Sondheim<\/span><\/p>\n

CAST Original Broadway 1957:
\nTony – Larry Kert
\nMaria- Carol Lawrence
\nAnita – Chita Rivera
\nRiff – Michael Callan
\nBernardo – Ken LeRoy
\nLt.Schrank – Arch Johnson
\nDoc – Art Smith
\nKrupke – William Bramley<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong>
\nA Celebration of the Life of Billy Wilson, dancer, choreographer, director, educator<\/span><\/a>
\nWest Side Story Suite | New York City Ballet<\/span><\/a>
\nWest Side Story Cast<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

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

Billy Wilson and West Side Story Billy Wilson performed as Juano in the original London production of West Side Story in New […]<\/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-17781","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\/17781","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=17781"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18846,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17781\/revisions\/18846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}