Research Catalog

Interview with Delores Browne

Title
Interview with Delores Browne, 2019
Author
Browne, Delores
Publication
2019

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AudioSupervised use *MGZMT 3-3483Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance

Details

Additional Authors
Deans, Joselli Audain
Description
Online resource (3 streaming files (approximately 4 hr. and 54 min.)) : digital +
Summary
  • Streaming file 1, May 30, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 46 minutes). Delores Browne speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about her family and childhood, in Philadelphia (Penn.), including her pre-school and elementary school classes; life during World War II including her memories of December 7 [1941]; her grandmother, Lucretia "Sadie" Wilson, and her parents Samuel Browne and Harriet Ann Wilson Browne; putting on her own theatrical productions as a child; her neighborhood including the fact that the schools, movie theaters, and church were not segregated; first learning that the U.S. Army had been segregated when hearing about her step-father's experience as a soldier in World War II; her uncle including his work as a code-breaker during the War; her father's and uncle's experience with racism on the part of their Irish-American neighbors; an anecdote about looking, as a child, for a dance school; joining the ballet club in junior high school (Barrett Junior High School) and dancing in the club's concerts; Marion Cuyjet's visit to the junior high school (which was Cuyjet's alma mater) to give Browne (and two other students) a scholarship to Cuyjet's school, Judimar School of Dance; her early performances on toe in school recitals; her memories of Marion Cuyjet including Cuyjet's arranging for her students to take class at the Ballet Arts [Center of Dance] in New York City; an anecdote about how George Mills helped her deal with racism in her first class at Ballet Arts; how Marion Cuyjet gave her and her other students a solid grounding in ballet history and terminology; partnering class at Ballet Arts; the teachers at Ballet Arts; various aspects of the Judimar School of Dance including the use of live music for class and rehearsals; Cuyjet's strict standards for her students, including punctuality, dress, and hair; the atmosphere of camaraderie at Judimar; the curriculum; the recitals including the elaborate costumes, the use of professional musicians, and the performance venues; other public performances by students of Judimar including in operas at the Academy of Music; entering the School of American Ballet when she was 17, including her audition with Muriel Stuart; her classes; her life in New York while she was at the School including her unsatisfactory living arrangements; some of her teachers; her regret that she left the School when she did; her feeling that she was never overlooked in class or discouraged from her decision to dance professionally; the other Black students at the School when she was there; Louis Johnson, including an anecdote about his recruiting her for his own choreographic work; the comfort she felt with ballet from the time of her first barre and how this spurred her to work hard; other aspects of ballet that attracted her including the romanticism, the music, and the costumes; an anecdote about how Cuyjet responded to Browne's expressed disdain for modern dance; the very few occasions on which she saw ballet performances outside of Judimar; her self-view and feelings about being Black and a ballet dancer; her lack of self-consciousness in all-white classes.
  • Streaming file 2, May 30, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 23 minutes). Delores Browne speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about returning to the Judimar School after her time at the School of American Ballet and how this led to her working with Ballet Guild and Antony Tudor; her experience with the New York Negro Ballet [originally named Ballet Americana] including company class; the equal pay and rank of all members; the repertoire including the Bluebird [pas de deux, from The Sleeping Beauty] and excerpts from Cinderella; an anecdote about Ted Crum and a fan's request for her toe shoes; Edward [Ward Flemyng] and his dual roles as director and dancer; the company's tour in England including rehearsals at the Drury Lane Theatre; other aspects of the tour; the journey by sea to England and their accommodations; anecdotes about various people they encountered in England; her roles on the tour including her favorite, [Princess Florine in] the Bluebird pas de deux; the audiences; some performance anecdotes; possible reasons as to why she never had a serious injury including good luck; the excellence of her training with Marion Cuyjet; working with many different kinds of people as a valuable legacy of her time at the New York Negro Ballet; her regret that so many talented dancers were denied the opportunities they deserved because they were Black; her memories of Thelma Hill, whom she regarded as a role model; her regret regarding the apparent lack of recognition of the company's achievements by other people of color; Louis Johnson as having always been supportive; her pride in having been part of the company; her partners including Bernard Johnson and Arty Allison; some memorable performances during her time with the New York Negro Ballet including performance anecdotes; returning to New York after the company's tour was cut short; taking class and working at various non-dance and dance-related jobs but always finding ways to express her creativity.
  • Streaming file 3, May 31, 2019 (approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes). Delores Browne speaks with Joselli Audain Deans about her life after returning to the United States, including her (first) marriage; her engagements in Europe while she was married, in particular performing with Josephine Baker in Dusseldorf; her memories of Josephine Baker; the end of her marriage after she returned from Europe; experiences that caused her to give up on her career as a ballet dancer including a conversation with Violette Verdy at a class given by Bill [William] Dollar and encountering racism at an audition at the Metropolitan Opera held by Antony Tudor and Alexandra Danilova; Raven [Wilkinson]'s similar experience with racism at this audition and when auditioning for Lucia Chase; how she returned to dance, after a four year hiatus, in a performance at the Lincoln Center Library [New York Public Library for the Performing Arts] at the invitation of John Jones of the Joffrey Ballet; continuing to work at a non-dance job but also taking class and teaching at Syvilla Fort's studio [Phillips-Fort Dance Studio, opened with her husband Buddy Phillips in 1955]; performing with Talley Beatty and his company [Tropicana] in Boston; her impressions of Tally Beatty; leaving his company, becoming engaged to her future (second) husband and being hired by Alvin Ailey to run the scholarship program at his school [Alvin Ailey American Dance Center; now the Ailey School]; Elma Lewis, an arts educator, who employed Browne as a teacher for various programs in Boston; her decision to give up working for Lewis in light of her other commitments, including to Ailey, to Philadanco [Philadelphia Dance Company], and to her marriage; the latitude Ailey gave her in structuring the scholarship program; anecdotes from her time there; her reasons for leaving this position when she did; her satisfaction with what she had accomplished with the scholarship students; teaching at Philadanco; her regret that even her most talented students were prevented by racism from joining Pennsylvania Ballet; her students at the Ailey school including how many went on to join the company [Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater]; some of the venues where the students performed including on television and at prisons; out-reach programs that brought students into the scholarship program; how she first met Alvin Ailey, at Karl Shook's ballet class; Ailey's recruiting her for an audition for [George] Balanchine's Figure in the carpet; her and her husband's shop, which sold Native American art; their trips to the Southwest to find objects for their shop; reasons she was attracted to Native American art and culture; how these trips enriched her life including anecdotes about some of her experiences; the end of her marriage and the shop; her life now that she is no longer teaching including how she still cannot relax when watching ballet performances; how the ballet world has changed since her youth with respect to the dancers, the audiences, and the works; how she feels about these changes; her thoughts on New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre including her refusal to attend their performances due to the lack of diversity; her reflections on how in her experience audiences have readily accepted diversity, in sports and in the arts; reasons she thinks ballet is so resistant to diversity; her thoughts more generally on race and racism; the greater diversity in ballet she has seen outside of the United States; her feeling that the current generation of dancers [of color] has been denied the opportunities they deserve; her putative advice to young ballet dancers today.
Alternative Title
  • Dance Oral History Project.
  • Dance Audio Archive.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Sound recordings.
  • Oral histories.
Note
  • Interview with Delores Browne conducted by Joselli Audain Deans on May 30 and 31, 2019 for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center in New York (N.Y.).
  • For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3483
  • As of August 2021 only the transcript of the audio recording of this interview is available. The audio files for this interview are undergoing processing and will be available for streaming in NYPL's Digital Collections in the near future.
  • Sound quality is excellent.
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
Access (note)
  • Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Funding (note)
  • The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3483
OCLC
1262749103
Author
Browne, Delores, Interviewee.
Title
Interview with Delores Browne, 2019
Imprint
2019
Playing Time
045400
Type of Content
spoken word
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
audio
Type of Carrier
online resource
volume
Digital File Characteristics
audio file
Restricted Access
Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.
Event
Recorded for for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2019, May 30 and 31 New York (N.Y.).
Funding
The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Connect to:
Added Author
Deans, Joselli Audain, interviewer.
Research Call Number
*MGZMT 3-3483
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