I was honored to be coached by Raven Wilkinson years ago, so this takes nothing away from her achievements, but she was not the first professional Black ballerina...I believe that honor goes to Catherine Devillier... #BlackHistoryMonth
Was chatting with fellow @nypldance fellow Sergey Konaev who is working on telling her story based on Russian archives. Her father was creole, she danced for the Bolshoi at the turn of the 20th century, danced for the Ballets Russes, then immigrated to the UK...
...where she became ballet’s first Black choreographer as well. Still working on sourcing this info, and more pics of her to come once Sergey gets clearance from Russian archives 🥰 I can’t wait to share his research!
She apparently spoke up against having to do whiteface to dance the lead in “Coppelia,” and was championed by Gorsky* in doing so. (*there’s also some revisionist history during the Cold War to make the Russians seem more progressive in contrast to America’s racism.)
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