Our First Friday Feature of the Year!

Hi Dancers! Take a look at our inspirational dancer of the week! She is someone who made statements, demanded change, and opened up the door of opportunity for many black artists to become apart of national companies, especially ballet ones! I am proud to share that our star of the week is Raven Wilkinson!

Raven Wilkinson in Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo's Les Sylphides, 1955-1961

Anne Raven Wilkinson was born on Feb. 2, 1935, in Manhattan. She had discovered her love for dance when she was around five years old, when she had watched the ballet “Coppélia,”. She was ready to be enrolled in the School of American Ballet in New York, but unfortunately due to her age and skin colour, she was not accepted. After her numerous attempts to get into a school, she finally had some luck by getting offered private dance lessons from a Russian teacher named Maria Swoboda. Wanting to become a professional dancer, in 1954, Wilkinson first auditioned for a position with the company Ballet Russe De Company. She was denied the first, second and third time she auditioned, but for her fourth attempt, she was finally accepted by the company. Performing and touring with the Company brought plenty of attention to Wilkinson, being that she was one, if not the only black dancer involved in the dance company. When going to see performances, many people were angered that she was dancing on stage, some would even go as far as shouting slurs at her while she performed. In order to remain a performer and to stay with the company, Wilkinson often had to wear white makeup onstage to conceal her racial identity. After her disastrous time with the company, she eventually stopped taking part in Southern tours, left the company in 1961 and stopped dancing altogether for two years. After regaining confidence and feeling secure in her skin, in 1967, she auditioned with the Dutch National Ballet. She was encouraged to do so by another African-American dancer, Sylvester Campbell. She of course had gotten in, and stayed with the troupe for seven years. Missing home, Ms. Wilkinson returned to New York in 1973 and, the next year, at nearly 40, joined New York City Opera, serving first as a member of its ballet ensemble. Later, after retiring from dancing, she became a supernumerary with the company, taking part in the stage action during operas. She stayed until the company’s demise, in 2011. In recent years, she was a mentor and friend to Misty Copeland who in 2015 became the first African-American ballerina to be named a principal dancer at American Ballet Theater in New York. The two met in 2011, and then in 2015, Ms. Wilkinson was present at Ms. Copeland’s New York debut in the lead role of “Swan Lake,” bringing her flowers onstage. Unfortunately, Wilkinson passed away on December 17th 2018, although she is gone, her legacy and fans cherish what she had brought to the dance world.

Cite: Harss, Marina. “Raven Wilkinson, Black Ballerina Braved Segregated South.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/obituaries/raven-wilkinson-dead.html.