Black dancers

That's a lot of hip thrusts!

JoJo Smith worked over six decades as one of entertainment’s top dance instructors and was known as “the choreographer to the stars.” The dance legend passed away last week. Smith was born July 20, 1938 in New York City to dancer parents Anna Margaret Grayson, and Joseph Benjamin Smith, and was raised in the Bronx. […]

The late Pearl Primus was a dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist who helped bring the beauty of African dance to American audiences. Today is her birthday. Pearl Eileen Primus was born November 29, 1919 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. In the early ’20’s, her family relocated to New York City. In 1940 while studying […]

It’s a dream come true for Misty Copeland to star in the Disney adaptation Nutcracker And The Four Realms. Misty, who danced in the classic ballet when she was 13, calls it a “full circle” moment. She is the brown ballerina she had always hoped to see. We caught up with the principal dancer and […]

The late Arthur Mitchell’s dancing talent was discovered when he was a teenager in Harlem, on his way to becoming the first Black male permanent member of a major American ballet troupe. Mitchell was born on March 27, 1934 in Harlem, N.Y., and he attended the New York City High School of Performing Arts. He found […]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Arthur Mitchell, who broke barriers for African-Americans in the 1950s as a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet and who would go on to become a driving force in the creation of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, has died. He was 84. Mitchell died Wednesday at a New […]

The late Syvilla Fort was the dance instructor to the stars, and was destined to perform the task from a young age. Today is Ms. Fort’s birthday and we look back at her life. Fort was born in Seattle on this day in 1917, and began receiving instruction in dance at three years old. Because […]

Donald McKayle was a pioneering dancer and choreographer who became one of the first Black men in modern dance to break the race barrier. McKayle passed away last weekend after a long career in his later life as a dance instructor and professor. McKayle was born July 6, 1930 in New York, and raised in […]

  Actor and dancer Maurice Hines has been gracing stages since the age of five, and continues to thrill audiences nearly seven decades later. Alongside his brother, the late Gregory Hines, the Tony Award-nominated performer continues to honor the past while influencing the present. Born December 13, 1943, Hines and his younger sibling began their […]

  The late Michael Jackson immortalized the “Moonwalk” during his performance at Motown 25 in 1983, with breakdancing and pop locking-influenced dance moves that dazzled the world. However, the moonwalk might have been a later incarnation of a dance move allegedly invented by tap dancer Bill Bailey. Bailey, born on December 8, 1912 in Newport […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Ballerina Misty Copeland, who just became the first African-American woman to be a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, has another breakthrough planned — a debut on Broadway. Producers of the high-energy revival of “On the Town” said Sunday that Copeland will join the show from Aug. 25 to Sept. 6, […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Bravos, bouquets and most of all a clear sense of history reigned at the Metropolitan Opera House on Wednesday as Misty Copeland made her New York debut in “Swan Lake,” a key moment for the popular ballerina whom many hope will soon become the American Ballet Theater’s first black principal dancer. […]