by Nadine Matthews | Jun 21, 2024 | Onstage, The Latest
As Brooklyn’s Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center gears up for its annual dance season, called Color Pointes, it will be celebrating a bit differently this year. The festival, which runs June 21–23 and spotlights choreographers of color, usually presents a range of...
by Monica Stephenson | Feb 23, 2024 | Black History Month, Pointe+, Profiles
Sandra Fortune-Green is proof that success is not always immediate, but perseverance is lasting. In 1973, at the age of 22, she began training diligently for the second Moscow International Ballet Competition. She was the only American candidate that year—and she says...
by Pointe Magazine | Feb 23, 2023 | Black History Month, Pointe+, Videos
We recently had the pleasure of speaking with two groundbreaking artists and colleagues: Lauren Anderson, Houston Ballet’s first Black principal ballerina (and current Houston Ballet Academy associate director of Education and Community Engagement), and Harper...
by Lydia Murray | Aug 16, 2022 | Black History Month, Profiles
History’s rare gems often languish in the shadows of what might have been, and ballet is no exception. Those credited with shaping the artform—usually choreographers, principal dancers and impresarios—become legends, while corps de ballet members mostly go...
by Lauryn Hayes | Feb 28, 2022 | Company Life
It was the last week of my freshman year in college. The promise of summer break and the humidity of my Texas hometown created the perfect excuse to dabble in protective hairstyles. Long transfixed with the idea of transformation, I decided I was done brushing,...
by Shaté L. Hayes | Feb 16, 2022 | Training
When Dallas-area photographer TaKiyah Wallace-McMillian was searching for a diverse dance studio for her daughter in 2012, she was shocked to find very few images of Black or brown dancers on local studio websites. “Everyone would have blond hair and blue eyes, even...
by Lydia Murray | Nov 1, 2021 | News, Profiles, The Latest
In 1999, a 17-year-old Misty Copeland noticed an image that would help shape her future: Lauren Anderson, the first Black principal dancer with Houston Ballet, on the cover of Dance Magazine. Copeland, then a pre-professional ballet student, was awestruck. “It was an...
by April Deocariza | Aug 18, 2021 | News, Onstage, The Latest
In the 20th century, five Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma became trailblazers in ballet, performing with the world’s most renowned companies, becoming artistic directors, and founding schools, some of which are still active today. Their stories are ones to be...