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Night's Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins by Yaël Tamar Lewin Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2011 382 pages, $37.00
Janet Collins broke the color barrier and became the first African-American to dance full-time for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in Aida on November 13, 1951, a few years before Marian Anderson broke the same barrier for singers in 1955. This excellent biography of Collins with 63 illustrations, 16 in color, recounts how she goes on to star in ballets for La Gioconda and Samson et Dalila.
In Aida Collins made an unusual entrance into the triumphal scene feet first and head last lying flat in the air as two male dancers carried her. The athleticism of the choreography included her climb up a few boys to a squat...