From Aesha to India
Celebrating Black ballerinas who have shared their gifts with the world across generations
If I were to ask you to name a ballerina, you would probably immediately say the name “Misty Copeland”. A principal dancer at ABT, retiring this fall, Copeland has been an icon to millions of people of all races, in all industries, in addition to an amazing dancer (Watch her Juliet here). But, I think it’s important to recognize that, while Copeland’s impact on the ballet community has been unmatched, there are more African-American dancers we should recognize, not because of their race, but because they are just that good.
Recently, when I was watching an old New York City Ballet YouTube video (It was Western Symphony), I noticed a certain ballerina in the corps. In a storied company where currently, the half-dozen African American dancers are the most the 100-person roster has held, there was a Black ballerina in a video from 1990. In the comments of this video, multiple viewers made note of this dancer. They were quite excited, “OMG is that Aesha ?”, “WTF Is that Aesha ?”. The “Aesha” I’m sure they are referring to is Aesha Ash. Ash joined the corps de ballet in 1996. She was 13 in 1990.
The dancer in question, in the video, was Andrea Long, a dancer with NYCB who also danced as a principal with Dance Theatre of Harlem and now teaches in Boston. What caught my attention here is not the fact that commenters were excited to see who they thought was Aesha Ash- if I thought I saw Aesha Ash I would be excited.
The problems here are that 1) there have been virtually no African American dancers in the company's long history (and this is just one example of an industry-wide disparity), and 2) the focus is often so fixated on that drastic gap that nobody recognizes the Black dancers who are there and were there.
I mean, at New York City Ballet alone, we have Debra Austin who was the originator of a soloist role in the iconic ballet Ballo Della Regina. While at DTH, Long performed principal roles in The Firebird and Serenade. Ash performed a principal role in Balanchine’s Rubies with SAB at age 18, founded The Swan Dreams Project and is the first African American female faculty member at the School of American Ballet. Each of these artists is unique and individual and worthy of recognition for their accomplishments as artists and as leaders.
So let’s not repeat the past. Here’s a list of Black female dancers to explore and enjoy, right now:
That is it for now! Happy Juneteenth to anybody celebrating!
Chrysten Mariah’s comment about her hair, and what it meant to her was so lovely and so important💖