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Description
Footage begins with a rehearsal for a show in Dodger Stadium featuring Cantinflas, the Mexican film star, and Rickard dancers. 00:01:50 Rickard (?) comes in and out of camera giving instructions. 00:02:28 Switches to live shot of performers in Spanish costume on horseback and dance performance in the center of the stadium. 00:03:26 Footage of trip to Europe including scenes of Paris and other cities. 00:05:11 Rickard visits the gravesites of Georges Bizet, Oscar Wilde, Chopin and Rossini. 00:08:10 Rickard lays rose at the graves of the dancer Nijinsky and Igor Stravinsky. 00:09:39 Cut to rehearsal studio with male and female dancers. Choreographer Joseph Rickard (1918-1994) founded the First Negro Classical Ballet in Los Angeles in 1946, after he overheard an African-American woman being turned away from a dance studio where she sought lessons for her daughter. Rickard, from that moment, became determined to start his own dance studio where he could train African-American dancers in classical ballet. In 1947, the First Negro Classical Ballet debuted in Los Angeles to great acclaim and performed together for the next ten years. About 1968, Rickard founded the Negro Classical Ballet after the demise of the FNCB and, at the same time, and for the next 30 years, organized and taught in other integrated local ballet companies, including the Southern California Ballet and the San Gabriel Valley Civic Ballet. Notes written on original containers: Cantinflas show at Dodger Stadium - Joes trip to Europe - Some of Joes Dancers - Misc other company Ballets etc.
Type
moving image
Format
Original Sound 2-track mono Color VHS
Form/Genre
Dance films
Extent
1 Tape of 1 00:19:40
Identifier
mssHM 68942-69272-02 csmha_000307
Language
English
Subject
African American dance Ballet Rickard, Joseph, -1994
Provenance
The Huntington Library California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
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