Black Ballerina Film Screening in White Plains Public Library

Press release from the White Plains Public Library:

February 16, 2021 2:20 pm | by Kristy, Adult Librarian

Black Ballerina will be available to White Plains Public Library patrons to stream from home through the month of February.

Stream the film on Vimeo here, with the password: WPblackballerina2021

BLACK BALLERINA is a story of passion, opportunity, heartbreak and triumph of the human spirit. Set in the overwhelmingly white world of classical dance, it tells the stories of several black women from different generations who fell in love with ballet. Sixty years ago, while pursuing their dreams of careers in classical dance, Joan Myers Brown, Delores Browne and Raven Wilkinson (the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo's first black ballerina) confronted racism, exclusion and unequal opportunity in segregated mid-century America. In 2015, three young black women also pursue careers as ballerinas, and find that many of the same obstacles their predecessors faced are still evident in the ballet world today. Through interviews with current and former ballet dancers along with engaging archival photos and film, the one-hour documentary uses the ethereal world of ballet to engage viewers on a subject that reaches far outside the art world and compels viewers to think about larger issues of exclusion, equal opportunity and change.

Producer/Director Frances McElroy is a 2009 Pew Fellow in the Arts and 2010 Leeway Foundation Transformation Awardee. Project supporters include the National Endowment for the Arts, Women In Film and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. BLACK BALLERINA is produced by Shirley Road Productions and distributed by American Public Television.

This press release was produced by the White Plains Public Library. The views expressed are the author's own.