Collins, Janet (1917—)

First African-American dancer to find considerable success in ballet, becoming a premiere danseuse for the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s, who later gained notice in modern dance and as a teacher. Born Janet Collins on March 2, 1917, in New Orleans, Louisiana; daughter of Ernest Lee Collins (a tailor) and Alma (de Lavallade) Collins (a seamstress); completed high school in Los Angeles; attended Los Angeles City College; never married; no children.

Studied dance in Los Angeles and performed on early television shows and with various companies; first New York solo concert debut (1949); was principal ballet dancer of the Metropolitan Opera (1951–54); gave solo concert tours in U.S. and Canada (1952–55); taught at Marymount College, Harkness House, School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School. Awards: Donaldson Award for best dancer of the Broadway season (1951–52); Dance Magazine Award (1959).

Works choreographed:

Blackamoor (1947); Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1947); Spirituals (1947); Protest (1947); Après le Mardi Gras (1947); Juba (1949); Three Psalms of David (1949); Moi l'Aime Toi, Chère (1951); The Satin Slipper (1960); Genesis (1965); Cockfight (1972); Birds of Peace and Pride (1973); Song (1973); Fire Weaver (1973); Sunday and Sister Jones (1973).

In mid-20th-century America, ballet was still a snowy, white world, a pristine playground of snowflakes, sylphs, and swans that required money for years of training. Without sponsorship, most African-Americans could ill afford the financial burden. More important, many thought that African-Americans were physically incapable of mastering ballet technique because of the structure of their bodies. Janet Collins opened the door. Though it remains an area of dance with relatively few blacks, she set a precedent that began to enlarge the possibilities for African-Americans in the field.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 2, 1917, Collins was of mixed African and French ancestry. Her father was a tailor; her mother was a seamstress. All the children—four girls and one boy—proved successful, attending college and attaining professional careers in education, social work, and the army. When Collins was four, the family moved to Los Angeles where she spent the rest of her formative years. She took her first dance lessons at the age of ten at a local Catholic social center and was still in junior high school when she danced in vaudeville and in the Los Angeles casts of productions by Hall Johnson of Run Little Chillun and Mikado in Swing. She even briefly joined the touring company of Katherine Dunham . Thus, she became extremely versatile, a characteristic that led to a very diverse career and for which she would be heralded in the competitive dance world.

Perhaps recognizing the difficulties she would face as a black, Collins did not limit her dance training. She took ballet and Spanish dance classes from Carmelita Maracci , ballet from Adolph Bolm, Mia Slavenska, Carlotta Tamon , and Dorothy Lyndall , and modern dance from Lester Horton. Later in New York, after her first solo recital in 1949, she received a scholarship to study composition with Doris Humphrey . She also took modern dance classes with Humphrey and Hanya Holm , and ballet with Margaret Craske and Anthony Tudor. At a time when loyalty was highly prized and spite widely rampant amid the members of the nascent and struggling young American dance world, Collins defied the system and gained invaluable, broad experience.

To me Dance is not an 'I' but a truth. As all truth is derived from simple, fundamental laws of nature, thus we, ourselves, do not create a truth, but rather, put forth a conscious effort to find it.

—Janet Collins

While still in Los Angeles, Collins auditioned for the world-renowned ballet company, Ballets Russes. She was offered acceptance into the company on two conditions: first, that she would be used only in small parts, and second, that she would have to use "Caucasian" makeup to make her look white. "[I] cried for an hour," Collins told an interviewer. "And went back to the barre."

This incident was only a small indication of the discrimination that awaited the young dancer. John Martin, the influential critic of The New York Times, promulgated the common misconception of the capabilities of African-Americans. In John Martin's Book of Dance, revised in 1963, he wrote: "By and large, [the Negro] has been wise enough not to be drawn into [ballet], for its wholly European outlook, history, and technical theory are alien to him culturally, temperamentally, and anatomically." In his view, however, Janet Collins was the exceedingly rare exception. She was the only instance of a "Negro" ballerina, "beautifully equipped physically, technically and stylistically."

Collins received accolades in ballet, however, after she had achieved success in other dance styles. In 1949, she was 32 when she made her choreographic and solo debut at the 92nd St. YMHA, earning a chance to appear on the annual Audition Winners Concert, which chose outstanding newcomers in the dance field. Walter Terry, critic of the New York Herald Tribune, wrote of this debut: "It took no more (and probably less) than eight measures of movement in the opening dance to establish her claim to dance distinction as the most highly gifted newcomer in many a season."

Soon thereafter, Hanya Holm employed her in the Cole Porter musical, Out of This World (1950), to dance a role called "Night." Collins received ecstatic reviews. In a Broadway season where the competition included the premieres of Jerome Robbins' The King and I (with its well-received ballet "The Little House of Uncle Tom"), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Guys and Dolls, Collins was given the Donaldson Award for the best Broadway dancer of the season. During this period, she also appeared on early television variety shows, including "The Admiral Broadway Review" (NBC, 1949), "This is Show Business"

(CBS, 1951), and the Paul Draper and Jack Haley shows. Overcoming significant racism, she established herself as a preeminent, talented dancer.

Collins' crowning achievement was being named a principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera. From 1951–54, while already in her mid-30s, she performed starring roles in Aïda, Carmen, La Gioconda, and Samson et Delila. During time off from the Metropolitan Opera's seasons, she conducted extensive tours around the United States and Canada. Although she never received much critical acclaim for her choreography, she performed diverse programs of modern dance, ballet, and dancing to black spirituals and had both pianist and drumming accompanists. Again, her strength and rarity lay in her very diverse abilities.

Most dance aficionados recognized Collins' uniqueness, particularly in her success in both the ballet and modern styles. Asked about the inherent conflict between ballet and modern dance that many believed existed, Collins replied: "There is no conflict. You need both to extend the range of the body." In a brochure issued by her agent, Columbia Artists Management, she elaborated:

This great difference in the approach to dance between the Ballet and Modern schools is not necessarily a conflicting one, provided the dancer approaches both with an open-minded attitude, and learns, and absorbs and assimilates the vast and enriching science and art at the heart of each.

Indeed, Collins was teaching both ballet and modern at this time. At George Balanchine's prestigious School of American Ballet, she taught modern dance from 1950 to 1952. She also taught at Marymount College, Harkness House, and the San Francisco Ballet School.

It was her inspiration as a role model for African-Americans, however, that proved to be her lasting contribution to dance. The next generation of African-Americans in dance, including Geoffrey Holder and Arthur Mitchell, held her in awe. Closer to home, her own cousin Carmen DeLavallade greatly benefitted from Collins' successes. Following directly in her footsteps, DeLavallade was the next great African-American woman ballet dancer, and even took over Collins' principal roles at the Metropolitan Opera. Then Arthur Mitchell, the first African-American accepted in the New York City Ballet in 1956, left that company to start the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1968. From then on, African-Americans have at least had a prominent, though isolated, place in ballet. The hard-fought successes can be attributed to the pioneering work and talent of Janet Collins.

sources:

Biographical Dictionary of Dance. NY: Schirmer Books, 1982.

Chujoy, Anatole. The Dance Encyclopedia. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1967.

"Interview with Janet Collins," in Dance Magazine. February 1954, pp. 27–29.

Janet Collins and Her Company. Souvenir Program [1953?]. Dance Collection, Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, New York Public Library.

Phonotape of interview with Walter Terry, 1953, in the Dance Collection, Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, New York Public Library.

suggested reading:

Emery, Lynne Fauley. Black Dance From 1619 to Today. NJ: Princeton Book Company, rev. ed. 1988.

Long, Richard. The Black Tradition in American Dance. NY: Rizzoli, 1989.

Thorpe, Edward. Black Dance. London: Chatto and Windus, 1989.

collections:

Scrapbooks, manuscripts, programs, photographs, costume designs, and clippings at the Dance Collection, Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, New York Public Library.

related media:

"Eye on Dance: Dancing Families," hosted by Celia Ipiotis with Geoffrey Holder, Carmen DeLavallade, and Christian Holder, WNYC, original airdate February 7, 1983, in Dance Collection, Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, New York Public Library.

Julia L. Foulkes , University of Massachusetts at Amherst