{"id":3614,"date":"2019-11-03T20:30:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T20:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=3614"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","slug":"bernice-harrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/03\/bernice-harrison\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernice Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Bernice Harrison<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong>First Negro Classical Ballet Company<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3612\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3612\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/download-1-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3612\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/download-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"370\" height=\"448\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3612\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/01\/james-truitte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Truitte<\/a> and Bernice Harrison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bernice Harrison was a leading dancer with the First Negro Classical Ballet Company, founded by Joseph Rickard. She was prominently featured in FNCB&#8217;s production throughout its existence. Harrison is the first recorded African American woman to perform en pointe.<\/p>\n<p>Harrison&#8217;s daughter is cited as being the catalyst for Rickard to start the FNCB school. After witnessing Harrison&#8217;s daughter being denied ballet classes by an instructor, Rickard opened the FNCB school for African American students (the first ballet school in Los Angeles for African American students). Harrison&#8217;s daughter became one of Rickard&#8217;s first students. Harrison then quickly began taking classes at the school and became a central presence in the company. Critics celebrated Harrison for being a leading ballet dancer who was also a mother to three children.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10194\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10194\" style=\"width: 397px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-23-at-9.41.49-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10194\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-23-at-9.41.49-AM-300x278.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"397\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-23-at-9.41.49-AM-300x278.png 300w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-23-at-9.41.49-AM-230x213.png 230w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-23-at-9.41.49-AM.png 317w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10194\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bernice Harrison and <a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/graham-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Graham Johnson<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Marcus, Kenneth H. &#8220;Dance Moves: An African American Ballet Company in Postwar Los Angeles.&#8221;\u00a0<i>Pacific Historical Review<\/i>\u00a083, no. 3 (2014): 487-527. doi:10.1525\/phr.2014.83.3.487.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/cdnc.ucr.edu\/?a=d&amp;d=SBS19520819.1.14&amp;e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Bernardino Sun, Volume 58, Number 307, 19 August 1952<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernice Harrison First Negro Classical Ballet Company Bernice Harrison was a leading dancer with the First Negro Classical Ballet Company, founded by [&hellip;]<\/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":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614","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=3614"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10195,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614\/revisions\/10195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}