{"id":470,"date":"2016-11-11T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=470"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:29","slug":"broad-street-review-reviving-and-revering-the-history-of-black-ballet-dancers-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2016\/11\/11\/broad-street-review-reviving-and-revering-the-history-of-black-ballet-dancers-in-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"Broad Street Review: Reviving and revering the history of black ballet dancers in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0Broad Street Review: Reviving and revering the history of black ballet dancers in Philadelphia<\/h1>\n

By, Nadia Eldemerdash<\/h5>\n
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October 25, 2016<\/p>\n

in What’s New What’s Next<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Philadelphia dancer Delores Browne. (Image courtesy of MOBBallet.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many black dancers in America who worked during the era of segregation and beyond have been forgotten because they were denied a public platform to perform. Now, giving them their rightful place is at the heart of a new digital project moving forward with dollars from the Knight Foundation.<\/p>\n

Dance is at the crux of Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet<\/a> (MOBBallet) founder Theresa Ruth Howard\u2019s life. It\u2019s what she does, what she teaches, and what she writes about, whether on her own website, MyBodyMyImage<\/a>, or for numerous dance and arts publications. MOBBallet, her latest project, reveals the history and legacy of black ballerinas in the United States.<\/p>\n

Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet<\/a> (MOBBallet) is an online project that preserves this legacy: the stories of dancers who defied expectations and difficult odds to practice and present their craft.<\/p>\n

As strong as our stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories of Blacks in ballet are integral to the history of dance,\u201d the website explains. The mission is to use traditional archival material and oral memoirs for mini documentaries to promote discussion in the dance community at large, and bolster a network for today\u2019s emerging black ballet dancers all over the world: \u201cWe are only as strong as our stories, [and] therefore they must\u2026be told and preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

MOBBallet was recently one of thirteen Philadelphia arts organizations<\/a> to receive funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Howard will putting the $50,000 grant toward creating and curating digital art installations that celebrate pioneering black ballerinas in the Philadelphia dance scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Legacy of Black Ballerinas in Philadelphia\u201d will be featured on the MOBBallet website, with digital presentations on a few of the most iconic black ballet dancers in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach installation will consist of a video profile, an essay, and original archival data (photos, programs, journalism, etc.),\u201d Howard says. \u201cTo put their struggles into the proper historical context, each installation [will] sit on a timeline consisting of significant events in both world and dance history.\u201d<\/p>\n

When \u201cyou can\u2019t\u201d is a lie
\n\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project will feature influential dancers such as Joan Myers Brown<\/a>, founder of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO)\u00a0and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts;\u00a0Delores Browne, who in 1957 joined the first ever all-black ballet company, the New York Negro Ballet;\u00a0and Judith Jamison, a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the 50th person to be inducted into the National Museum of Dance\u2019s Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough their words we will build the profiles of their primary dance teachers, Essie Dorsey, Sydney King, and Marion Cuyjet, who worked tirelessly to train black youth in classical techniques regardless of whether or not there was a place for them to utilize their talents,\u201d Howard says.<\/p>\n

Having a place to dance and be recognized is at the heart of the MOBBallet project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt saddens me that children today don\u2019t know their history,\u201d Myers Brown says on the MOBBallet site. \u201cI can say to a student, you remind me of so-and-so and they have no clue who I\u2019m talking about and it\u2019s a shame\u2026. When you know your history you can walk, dance with pride, and when someone tells you \u2018you can\u2019t,\u2019 you know that they are lying.\u201d<\/p>\n

MOBBallet\u2019s projects, including an ongoing roll-call of black ballerinas and a timeline of the important dates in the history of black ballet, are available to see and interact with at mobballet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At right: Philadephia dance leader\u00a0Joan Myers Brown. (Image courtesy of MOBBallet)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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

\u00a0Broad Street Review: Reviving and revering the history of black ballet dancers in Philadelphia By, Nadia Eldemerdash October 25, 2016 in What’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"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":[6],"tags":[33,39,41,40,42,44,45,43],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-zine","tag-balck-ballerinas","tag-broad-street-review","tag-delores-browne","tag-joan-myers-brown","tag-judith-jamison","tag-knight-foundation","tag-mybodymyinage-com","tag-philadelphia"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470","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=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}