{"id":8685,"date":"2021-01-08T19:51:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T19:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=8685"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:26","slug":"valerie-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/valerie-black\/","title":{"rendered":"Valerie Black"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valerie Black<\/strong><\/h2>\n

American Negro Ballet
\nNegro Unit of Ballet Theatre<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Valerie Black via The Daily News<\/em>, October 28, 1945.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Valerie Cavell Black, born in 1917 in Colon, Panama, attended Bryant High School and Hunter College in New York City. After seeing a call for dancers to join Eugene Von Grona’s American Negro Ballet<\/a>, she\u00a0<\/span>performed with the company at their 1937 premiere at Lafayette Theatre, where she played the lead in Children of the Earth<\/em>. At this performance, critics praised Black, <\/span>Al Bledger<\/a>, <\/span>Lavinia Williams<\/a>, and their fellow dancers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Black was also a member of Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre<\/a>, performing in the 1940 premiere of Agnes de Mille\u2019s <\/span>Black Ritual<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Black was featured in several Broadway shows; she was in the original casts of <\/span>The Hot Mikado<\/span><\/i> (1939), <\/span>Big White Fog<\/span><\/i> (as Caroline, 1940), <\/span>Carmen Jones<\/span><\/i> (1943), <\/span>Lysistrata<\/span><\/i> (1946), and <\/span>Our Lan\u2019<\/span><\/i> (as Ellen, 1947). Black was cast as the understudy for the title role of <\/span>Anna Lucasta<\/span><\/i>; a year after the show opened, she took over the role when the original cast member left the production. The New York Age<\/em> praised Black’s “superb acting, her charming personality, and her constant efforts in trying to do a better job every performance.”<\/span><\/p>\n

She appeared in the film <\/span>Beware!<\/span><\/i> in 1946 and <\/span>Aida<\/span><\/i> with the National Negro Opera Company in 1941 as well as work on radio and in clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Black passed away in 2003.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Playbill for The Hot Mikado<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Playbill for Carmen Jones<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sources:<\/b><\/p>\n

Pioneers in Negro Concert Dance: 1931 to 1937, Free to Dance<\/a>
\nValerie Black, Playbill<\/a>
\nMaher, Erin K. \u201cBallet, Race, and Agnes de Mille\u2019s Black Ritual.\u201d <\/span>The Musical Quarterly<\/span><\/i>, vol. 97, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 390-428.<\/span>
\nInside the Playbill: Our Lan’, Playbill<\/a>
\nValerie Black, Native of Panama, Scores in “Anna Lucasta” Show, The New York Age Dec 1, 1945<\/a>
\nThe Daily News, Oct 28, 1945<\/a><\/p>\n

See also:<\/b><\/p>\n

Night\u2019s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valerie Black American Negro Ballet Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre Valerie Cavell Black, born in 1917 in Colon, Panama, attended Bryant High […]<\/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-8685","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\/8685","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=8685"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11285,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8685\/revisions\/11285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}