Dance in Film · 2016
Black Ballerina (2016)
Frances McElroy intercuts Joan Myers Brown, Delores Browne, and Raven Wilkinson with Ashley Murphy, Amanda Smith, and Bianca Fabré, using their training, auditions, pointe work, and careers to measure how racial exclusion persists across generations of American classical ballet.
Black Ballerina is a 2016 dance documentary centred on ballroom and social dance. For dancers, it's a chance to see the style performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 5 indexed dance sequences ↓
Where to watch: PBS.org and the PBS app offered the complete 56m46s program when checked 2026-08-10, with the PBS page listing an expiration of 2028-09-04; Prime Video also listed rental or purchase. Availability may change.
Trailer
Official trailer.
The dance sequences in Black Ballerina
5 sequences — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
Amanda Smith and Charlotte Ballet outreach/class passage
Classical BalletDanced by Amanda Smith; Charlotte Ballet dancers
Young dancers demonstrating first-position discipline before answering children’s questions about training and pointe shoes.
The passage connects professional classwork with direct outreach to children who have little prior exposure to ballet, showing inclusion as an embodied practice.
Not currently available to stream; timestamp is for reference. Canonical 2016 LODance identity retained. PBS currently streams a 56:46 broadcast through 2028, while the San Francisco Dance Film Festival lists a 2015 60:00 version; timestamps were omitted because editions differ. The availability enum has no value for a non-YouTube free stream. McElroy identifies Charlotte Ballet’s Dance Theatre of Harlem partnership as the material for the film’s outreach scene; the article identifies Amanda Smith as the featured Charlotte Ballet dancer.
Ashley Murphy in Dance Theatre of Harlem company class
Classical BalletDanced by Ashley Murphy; Dance Theatre of Harlem dancers
Mitchell driving the class through counts and core corrections as Murphy recalls being invited into the company.
Arthur Mitchell’s counted corrections place Murphy’s career story inside the daily physical discipline of a professional classical-ballet company.
Not currently available to stream; timestamp is for reference. Canonical 2016 LODance identity retained. PBS currently streams a 56:46 broadcast through 2028, while the San Francisco Dance Film Festival lists a 2015 60:00 version; timestamps were omitted because editions differ. The availability enum has no value for a non-YouTube free stream. PBS’s official transcript pairs Murphy’s account of joining Dance Theatre of Harlem with Arthur Mitchell counting and correcting the company class.
Delores Browne Bluebird pas de deux archival sequence
Classical BalletDanced by Delores Browne; Bernard Johnson
Browne remembering the British audience’s warm acceptance of a Black ballerina in an unmistakably classical role.
The film’s archival-history passage grounds Browne’s account in the ultra-classical Bluebird pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty, making her technical achievement concrete rather than abstract.
Not currently available to stream; timestamp is for reference. Canonical 2016 LODance identity retained. PBS currently streams a 56:46 broadcast through 2028, while the San Francisco Dance Film Festival lists a 2015 60:00 version; timestamps were omitted because editions differ. The availability enum has no value for a non-YouTube free stream. The Hudson Review identifies Browne and Bernard Johnson in the Bluebird pas de deux and describes the documentary’s mix of archival and contemporary footage.
Lauren Anderson Firebird performance footage
Classical BalletDanced by Lauren Anderson
Anderson’s Firebird footage interrupting the idea that Black women’s classical-ballet success began with a single recent star.
Rights-cleared performance footage gives the documentary a full-stage example of a Black principal ballerina inhabiting a major repertory role.
Not currently available to stream; timestamp is for reference. Canonical 2016 LODance identity retained. PBS currently streams a 56:46 broadcast through 2028, while the San Francisco Dance Film Festival lists a 2015 60:00 version; timestamps were omitted because editions differ. The availability enum has no value for a non-YouTube free stream. Director Frances McElroy states that Houston Ballet supplied the documentary with performance footage of Lauren Anderson in Firebird.
Raven Wilkinson Les Sylphides waltz archival sequence
Classical BalletDanced by Raven Wilkinson
Wilkinson reaching a featured classical role before recounting the racism that curtailed her touring career.
The sequence ties Wilkinson’s persistence through repeated Ballet Russe auditions to the featured waltz role she finally earned in Les Sylphides.
Not currently available to stream; timestamp is for reference. Canonical 2016 LODance identity retained. PBS currently streams a 56:46 broadcast through 2028, while the San Francisco Dance Film Festival lists a 2015 60:00 version; timestamps were omitted because editions differ. The availability enum has no value for a non-YouTube free stream. The Hudson Review identifies Wilkinson’s third-year featured Waltz in Les Sylphides within its scene-by-scene discussion of the film.
Poster artwork from TMDB.
This site uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.