THE New York Negro Ballet Company created a stir in September 1957 when it arrived in Glasgow for a week-long run at the King’s Theatre.
“First time in Britain,” ran the wording on the advertisement in the entertainments guide in the Evening Times. “America’s Most Novel and Exotic Company.”
The paper’s critic, R.E.A., was among those present on the first night. “It is different,” began the review, “not only as American entertainment, but as ballet.
“The choreographic art the company has devised is something that seems to owe as much to the African ancestry of the dancers as to the European ballet tradition they have assimilated, and, while the coalescence may not be complete, the result is something vital.”
In Harlot’s House, based on Oscar Wilde’s poem, and Raisin’ Cane, R.E.A. added, the choreographers “are so well-served by this agile, flashing-limbed miming company that the stories unfold themselves as clearly as they would by the spoken word”.
On the other hand, the Glasgow Herald’s critic, J.D., took the view that the company had been none too well served by its choreographers.
“The dancers themselves have talent ... but the material they have been provided with falls short of the ideal. Much of it was confusing in its jumble of styles, and sometimes it seemed to be filling in so many bars of music without any real objective in view.”
The company was at its best in the brightly dressed Mardi Gras, “with a sparkling brilliance in their dancing to match the theme” and in Raisin’ Cain, “where they showed a fine aptitude for miming”.
The photograph shows two of the dancers, Elizabeth Thompson and Eugene Sagan, in a scene from Mardi Gras.
An online book search engine, incidentally, has details of a small card signed by 19 members of the company while on tour in Glasgow and London in 1957.
The explanatory text says the company, founded in 1954 with money from New England philanthropists and directed by the visionary dancer Ward Flemyng, was historically significant but short-lived, disbanding shortly after this tour.
Read more: Herald Diary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here