History of Black Dancers
Since the beginning of its existence, ballet has always been a White sport and art. Ballerinas are associated with having fair skin and White-European physical traits.
The black body has always been sexualized or masculinized. Black women’s bodies were never allowed to be normal, there has always been the belief that there is something to change and a way to better them. Ballerinas are meant to be innocent and almost childlike meaning there has never been a place for Black ballerinas.
In 1955, Raven Wilkinson became the first African American woman to receive a contract to dance full-time with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo of New York City. She was promoted to soloist during her second season and performed with the company for six years. She endured threats from the Ku Klux Klan as well as bomb threats from those who knew she was traveling the area. She was often encouraged to wear lighter toned make up but Wilkinson refused to hide her race. She trail blazed the ballet community for several years, traveling around the south performing famous variations. Wilkinson was eventually forced to leave the company for good due to safety reasons but her legacy lives on today.
Raven Wilkinson performing an arabesque on stage
One of the biggest and most exciting forward steps in the ballet community was the introduction of Misty Copeland. Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre, one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT’s 75-year history. Wilkinson was actually mentor and friend to Copeland upon her commitment to ABT. Wilkinson even brought flowers Copeland on stage after her debut performance in “Swan Lake.”
Misty Copeland for Damn Ugly Photography
There has been much dispute with Copeland’s role in the American Ballet Theatre. One of the most prominent being here physical appearance. Not unlike many prima ballerinas before her, Copeland has a very muscular build due to training around 40 hours a week. However, since she is a Black woman this has caused some uproar given that this made people think she looked to masculine and bulky to be a prima ballerina. Though photos of her can confirm this is not the case, it has still lead people to be displeased with her performances. When visually compared to a Russian ballerina, Natalia Osipova, their muscular builds are fairly similar, however, due to Osipova’s fair complexion, she has never received black-lash for her phsyical appearance.
Natalia Osipova performing Swan Lake in NY City Center
Though big steps have been made in the community, ballet is still a heavily White dominated sport. Only 10% of the entire ballet community in the United States is Black. Whether this is due to class, body type, skin color, etc. Black ballerinas are underrepresented. This is no different to many other aspects of the sports world. Black women face the discrimination of not only being Black but also a woman. Because of this, their discriminatory experiences are only heightened.
More information on providing Black ballerina’s with spaces to dance.