{"id":5301,"date":"2020-09-04T14:11:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T14:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=5301"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","slug":"betty-nichols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2020\/09\/04\/betty-nichols\/","title":{"rendered":"Betty Nichols"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Betty Nichols<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ballet Society
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Betty Nichols was one of the first Black students at the School of American Ballet, and in 1946 she became one of the members of Balanchine\u2019s Ballet Society. Nichols toured with Balanchine in Europe before the company was established as New York City Ballet. In addition to Blackface<\/em><\/a>, she was also featured in Todd Bolender\u2019s Zodiac<\/em>. In a 2013 interview<\/a>, she said, \u201cI started at the School of American Ballet, probably in 1943. I was the first black in the school. I knocked on the door and presented myself. I thought there was considerable surprise, but the door was opened, and that was it.\u201d She primarily studied modern during her time in Philadelphia and transitioned her focus towards ballet once she resided in New York.<\/p>\n

Nichols gained recognition through Ballet Society and became friends with Tanaquil (Tanny) who was also a dancer with Ballet Society and later went on to marry choreographer George Balanchine. Nichols thought highly of Le Clercq; she said \u201cTanny had been fantastic in Ballet Society\u2026something original\u201d and used to say to her \u201cKid, you\u2019re great.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1949, Nichols \u201cdecided that [she] was going to take every penny out of the bank and go on a thr\"\"<\/a>ee-month cultural vacation to Europe.\u201d Her original companions, Hilda and Ana, both received other offers, and as soon as Le Clercq heard, she called and said \u201cBetty, can I take Ana\u2019s place?\u201d Thus, Nichols and Le Clercq embarked on a Europe trip together.<\/p>\n

When they were in Paris, Nichols says that she and Le Clercq were walking on the pave <\/i>of St. Chapelle when they heard \u201cBetty! Tanny!\u201d It was Merce Cunningham and John Cage, who said \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a recital. You\u2019ve got to do it with us.\u201d Nichols knew Cunningham from SAB, and Le Clercq had danced Cunningham\u2019s Seasons <\/i>at Ballet Society. In this way, the two ballerinas danced a trio with Cunningham, after which Nichols stayed in Paris, while Le Clercq returned to America on her mother\u2019s insistence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Ballet Review<\/a><\/p>\n

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Talley Beatty and Betty Nichols in Lew Christensen’s Blackface<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

Arthur Mitchell Talks Race and Balanchine, Dance Magazine<\/a>
\nAn Interview with Betty Nichols, Ballet Review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betty Nichols Ballet Society Betty Nichols was one of the first Black students at the School of American Ballet, and in 1946 […]<\/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-5301","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\/5301","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=5301"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9356,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301\/revisions\/9356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}