Janet Faye Theresa Collins
(March 7, 1917 – May 28, 2003 )
American ballet dancer, choreographer and accomplished painter.
Janet Collins was the First and Only African American to become Prima Ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1951. She is the only alone up today that still holds that accomplishment. Misty Copeland made history in 2015 as the First African American female Principal Dancer iwht the prestigious American Ballet theatre.
Janet Faye Collins was born on March 7, 1917 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her parents were hardworking her father a tailor and mother a seamtress. She had five other siblings. At the age of four moved with her family to Los Angeles, California where Collins received her first dance training at a Catholic community center. She studied primarily with Carmelita Maracci, Lester Horton, and Adolph Bolm, who were among the few ballet teachers who accepted black students.
In 1932, aged 15, Collins auditioned with success for the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo but as she was required to paint her face and skin white in order to be able to perform, she did not join the company. In 1941 and 1943 she performed with the new, but world-renowned Black dance troupe formed and directed by Katherine Dunham. In 1948, she moved to New York and got the chance to dance her own choreography on a shared program at the 92nd Street YMHA.
She also danced a solo choreographed by Jack Cole in the 1946 film ”The Thrill of Brazil,” and worked with the filmmaker Maya Deren.
In 1949, Collins made her New York debut in a solo concert. She became the first Black artist to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Starring in the 1951 production of Cole Porter’s Out of This World As a prima ballerina. In that same year Collins won the Donaldson Award, signifying the best dancer on Broadway. Due to racism she could not tour in parts of the Deep South, owing to her race. In later life Collins taught modern dance at Balanchine’s School of American Ballet in New York City and at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.
Janet Collins performed and starred in ”Aida,” ”Carmen,” the Dance of the Hours in ”La Gioconda” and the Bacchanale in ”Samson and Delilah”, however, that she was to receive major attention again in New York when, in 1974, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater paid homage to her and Pearl Primus as pioneering black women in dance.
Janet Collins’ dance reputation today resides primarily in her role in breaking the colour barrier; the constraints on Black classical dancers were too strong for her to have a vibrant performing career. However, her original choreography, which she performed in solo tours, was clearly of note, although few records survive. In her late forties she retired, turning to religion and finding comfort as an oblate in the Benedictine order.
Collins donated her professional archives to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, but the documentation ceased at 1974. It took more than twenty years for the always elusive Collins to resurface, when she appeared in Philadelphia as the keynote speaker at the Eighth International Conference of Blacks in Dance in 1995. The great dancer revealed that she had returned to her other creative talent, painting, and was painting religious subjects exclusively. The living room in her Seattle home was her studio. 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of her debut with the Met, and she was living and still painting in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sadly Janet Collins died on Wednesday May 28, 2003 at the age of 86, in Fort Worth, Texas.
In 2007, in recognition of Collins’ great work and dedication, her renowned cousin Carmen De Lavallade established the Janet Collins Fellowship to honor aspiring talented ballet dancers
Awards
Julius Rosenwald Fellowship,
1945; named The Most Outstanding Debutante of the Season, Dance magazine,
1949; Merit Award, 1950; Young Woman of the Year, Mademoiselle magazine,
1950; Donaldson Award for best dancer on Broadway
1950; guest of honor and keynote speaker, Eighth International Conference of Blacks in Dance
1951; The Committee for the Negro in the Arts, honoree,
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Works as a Dancer
Run Little Chillun, 1940.
The Mikado in Swing, 1940.
Works at the Metropolitan House of Opera
Aida.
Carmen.
La Gioconda.
Samson et Dalila.
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Choreographer works
Blackamoor, 1947.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1947.
Spirituals, 1947.
Protest, 1947.
Après le Mardi Gras, 1947.
Juba, 1949.
Three Psalms of David, 1949.
Moi L’Aimé Toi, 1951.
Chére, 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.
Canticle of the Elements, 1974.