Thursday, July 10, 2014

Funds sought by Sweet Blackberry for 'animated short about Janet Collins, the first black ballerina to dance at the Metropolitan Opera'


The Janet Collins Story, 

presented by Sweet Blackberry

By Karyn Parsons

After playing Hilary on Fresh Prince
 Karyn Parsons founded a nonprofit 
that helps bring little-known stories 
 of African-American achievement to 
kids. Their latest project is an 
 animated short about Janet Collins, 
the first black ballerina to dance 
 at the Metropolitan Opera. Oh, and 
it's narrated by Chris Rock. 
                       ***

The fundraising goal of this project on 
KickStarter.com is $75,000.  As of this 
writing July 10, 2014, 517 Backers 
have pledged $50,256, with 7 days 
remaining.

The obituary of Janet Collins in 
The New York Times was written by 
Jennifer Dunning and published 
May 31, 2003.  Here is an excerpt::

"Janet Collins, prima ballerina of 
the Metropolitan Opera House in 
the early 1950's and one of a very 
few black women to become 
prominent in American classical 
ballet, died on Wednesday in Fort 
Worth. She was 86 and lived there."
"Ms. Collins taught dance, 
choreographed, performed on 
Broadway and in film and appeared 
frequently on television. But she 
was best known as the exquisitely 
beautiful dancer who was the first 
black artist to perform at the 
Metropolitan, four years before 
Marian Anderson sang there."

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