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Raven Wilkinson (born November 2nd, 1935) is an African-American ballet dancer and actress. She was the first black woman hired to dance full-time in a major ballet company. She danced with Sergei Denham's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, the Dutch National Ballet, and the New York City Opera Ballet.

1 Early years 2 Ballets Russes 3 Leaving the company 4 Dutch National Ballet 5 New York City Opera Ballet 6 Scholarship on Raven Wilkinson

Early Years

Wilkinson was born Anne Raven Wilkinson on February 2nd, 1935. Her parents were Dr. Frost Bernie Wilkinson, a dentist, and his wife Anne James Wilkinson. They lived in a middle class African American neighborhood, in the Dunbar Apartments on 150th Street in Harlem, New York City. Her brother, Frost Bernie Wilkinson, Jr. was born six years her junior.

At five years old, she saw the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo performing Coppelia at City Center. She recalls in an interview with Joselli Deans: “I started crying…I just sat there and thought ‘this is the most beautiful thing in the world.’ I really did - I started crying I was so taken up with it.”

She began taking ballet lessons at the age of nine as a birthday gift from her uncle. She studied under Vecheslav and Maria Swoboda, both Moscow Bolshoi Theatre-trained ballet dancers. The Swoboda School became the official school of the Ballets Russes in 1954. For the last two years of high school, she transferred from a private academic school in the Bronx to the Professional Children’s School, which allowed her to take several ballet classes a day throughout the week. She also took technique classes at the Ballet Theatre school with Madame Shollar from the St. Petersburg Imperial Russian Ballet.

Ballets Russes

Wilkinson auditioned twice for the Ballets Russes and was not accepted because the company toured in the Southern states. On her third audition, in August 1955 the company director Sergei Denham took her aside and told her that she was accepted, but that it was best if “the situation” (meaning her race) was kept quiet. Her light complexion made this possible, although Wilkinson made it clear that to him that she did not intend to hide her racial identity. Her employment with the Ballets Russes made her the first African-American ballerina in a major ballet company.

In her time touring with the Ballets Russes, she performed repertory such as Ballet Imperial, Beau Danube, Capriccio Espagnol, Dame a La Licorne, Gaite Parisienne, Giselle, Graduation Ball, Harlequinade, Harold in Italy, Mikado, Nutcracker, Raymonda, Scheherazade, Slavonic Dances, Sombreros, Swan Lake, Cirque de Deux, and Variations Classiques. Although in the corps de ballet, she performed a soloist role in Les Sylphides.

Eleanor D’Antuono, who danced with the Ballets Russes, Joffrey Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre, recalls “She had an exquisite artistic quality…very refined, very elegant. There was a depth to her work.”  Lois Bewley, a dancer with Ballets Russes, American Ballet Theatre, and New York City Ballet, said that “Of all the dancers I have ever known Raven is one of the most beautiful. She has an innate sense of true theater and dance.”  Arthur Mitchell, principal dancer at New York City Ballet and founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem, remembers seeing her dance: “beautiful feet…and a wonderful port de bras, and quite lyrical.”

Leaving the Company

Wilkinson toured with the Ballets Russes throughout the South for two years without incident. She recalls in the documentary “I’ll Make Me a World:” “I think some people who were black felt that I was doing what was called ‘passing’ and I felt I was going as a human being and an artist. It’s in the eye of the beholder. When someone asked me, ‘are you colored,’ I said yes. So that made a problem.”

In Atlanta, Georgia in 1957, Wilkinson was sent away from a “white” hotel where the company was staying and forced to spend the night in a “Negro” hotel instead. As word of her racial identity eaked out, Wilkinson had to was unable to perform in certain areas of the company’s tour in the South, especially parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. On one occasion the company was harassed during rehearsal by two white men who ran onstage to find “the Negra.”  The company ran into trouble with the Ku Klux Klan in Montgomery, Alabama. Wilkinson recalls: “The company told me, ‘Stay here, lock the door and don’t come out’ while they went to perform. I did, and from my window, I saw a cross burning outside.”

In late 1960, a company administrator spoke to her: “It was suggested that perhaps I had come to the end of my time in Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. And she put it this way: ‘We couldn’t have a black Swan Queen.’ And that I should get out and start a company of my own doing African dances. I’d given my life and love to classical ballet.”

Wilkinson left the Ballets Russes in early 1961, just before the company folded. She auditioned for several ballet companies, including New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, but without success. She joined a convent at the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1963, where she stayed for seven months.

Dutch National Ballet

In 1966, the famous ballet dancer Sylvester Campbell suggested that Wilkinson come dance with him in Holland at the Dutch National Ballet. Wilkinson wrote to the director, Sonia Gaskell, about her experience and offered to come to Holland to audition; she received in return a soloist contract for the following year. In her seven years with the company she performed in Firebird, Les Sylphide, Serenade, Giselle, Mozartiana, Concerto Barocco, the Pas de Trois in Swan Lake, and soloist roles in Symphony in C, La Valse, The Snow Maidens, and Graduation Ball. Wilkinson retired in 1973 and returned to the United States in October of that year.

New York City Opera Ballet

Wilkinson performed as an extra dancer with the New York City Opera Ballet between 1974 and 1985. She continues to perform character roles with the company.

Scholarship

Due to the current lack of scholarship on African-American ballet dancers, this article relies heavily on Joselli Deans’ well-researched 2001 Temple University dissertation on Delores Brown and Raven Wilkinson, which contains information from multiple interviews with both dancers.

Bibliography

Ballets Russes. DVD. Directed by Dayna Goldfine & Dan Geller. 2006; New York, Zeitgeist Films, 2006.

Caryn James. "Black Artists Grappling with Profound Questions of Art and Race." New York Times (1923-Current File), Feb 01, 1999. E8, http://search.proquest.com/docview/110145715?accountid=4840.

Deans, Joselli. "Black Ballerinas Dancing on the Edge: An Analysis of the Cultural Politics in Delores Browne's and Raven Wilkinson's Careers, 1954--1985."Temple University, 2001. In PROQUESTMS ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT), http://search.proquest.com/docview/251745832?accountid=4840.

I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Art. PBS Television Mini-Series. Directed by Denise Green, Samuel D. Pollard, and Tracy Heather Strain. 1999; New York, Blackside, 1999.

John Martin. "Dance Program in Central Park." New York Times (1923-Current File), Aug 15, 1959. 9, http://search.proquest.com/docview/114705455?accountid=4840.

Ronald Smothersnewark. "Healing the Wounds of Racism through Expression." New York Times (1923-Current File), Jan 10, 1999. 506, http://search.proquest.com/docview/110135175?accountid=4840.

Wisner, Heather. "Grace Under Fire - Dancer Raven Wilkinson." Dance Magazine, February 2001.