Josephine Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents who were popular dance hall performers in the City. By the age of 13, Josephine had packed up and hit the road to pursue a performance career of her own. She held a handful of non-performing gigs and made a few stage appearances until 1925, when she shook the world opening in “La Revue Negre” (famously known as the “Banana Dance”) at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris, France. Baker both exploited and promoted European colonial fantasies of the sensual and exotic African. She brought jazz and the Charleston to Paris and soon became known for her uninhibited performances and scanty costumes. Baker appeared in films and attracted the attention of celebrities like Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, and Pablo Picasso over the next decade of her career.

Baker’s success in Europe did not carry over to the United States when she returned in 1936; she faced racial discrimination and was barred from many hotels and refused service at clubs and restaurants. In protest, Baker renounced her American citizenship and moved permanently to Paris in 1937.

During World War II, Josephine Baker used her fame as an entertainer to gather intelligence for the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation: using her celebrity as a cover, she carried sensitive documents to neutral countries and allied occupied areas, sometimes using invisible ink on sheet music. After the war, Baker was decorated for her work by the French government.

In the later years of her life, Baker adopted orphans from around the world whom she called her “Rainbow Tribe,” creating a family as unique as her career. She passed away in 1975, and is immortalized as an icon in performance communities across the globe.

We move in celebration of groundbreaking women like Josephine Baker, who leverage their platforms for the advancement of others and persist relentlessly in doing so.

To learn more, visit blackpast.org/tag/choreographer-dancers, or watch “The Josephine Baker Story,” a movie documenting her impeccable life.

Jayna Ledford is an transgender ballerina, originally from Indiana, completing most of her dance training in Washington, D.C. At the the age of 5, Ledford expressed desire in wanting to dance in a leotard and was not allowed to do so in her studio: she transferred to a studio where she was allowed to be enrolled as a female. After a move to Maryland, Ledford was once again met with being encouraged to enroll and perform in ballet as a boy, rather than in alignment with her gender identity. She was consistently cast in male roles as a young person and in her teenage years.

Even after Ledford came out as transgender publicly in 2018, at the age of 18, many studios where she danced/had danced in the past struggled with her identity: “​​A lot of companies and studios where I danced as a male aren’t receptive to me as a female. It’s interesting to see who is shutting their doors and who is reaching out. It’s definitely hard because you want to be accepted everywhere, but unfortunately, it’s not like that.”

Ledford acknowledges ballet as a very gendered form of dance. After coming out publicly, she made plans to take a year off from performing to train fully as a female and attend college, and is pursuing roles like “Giselle, Juliet, Odette/Odile, and Aurora—you know, the roles that every little girl dreams of doing when she grows up and finally becomes a ballerina.” Jayna is currently at Montclair State University where she’s a dance and exercise science major, involved with her Filipino culture, and an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

We move in celebration of the path Jayna Ledford has laid out for young trans dancers all over the world, and carry hope for and appreciation of the stories she will surely tell as a dancer going forward.

Follow Jayna’s unfolding story on social media & youtube, where she is often featured for her ongoing advocacy and shattering stereotypes in dance.

William Henry Lane (stage name: Master Juba) is credited as one of the most influential figures in the creation of American tap dance. Lane developed a unique style of using his body as a musical instrument, blending African-derived syncopated rhythms with movements of the Irish jig and reel. Lane’s melding of these vernacular dance forms is recognizable today as the foundations of the ever-evolving style of American tap dance.

Free-born in Providence, Rhode Island around 1825, Lane’s original use of different areas of his feet to create rhythms, keep time, and improvise complex, syncopated rhythms was revolutionary for the 1840s (when he was performing in New York). Keeping with African oral traditions, Lane incorporated singing and laughter into his performances, adding another layer to his rhythmic creations.

Lane performed in minstrel shows alongside all-white troupes in black-face, touring and performing daily in America and Great Britain; today this is recognized as the cost of gaining fame and success as a young Black man in the 1800s. Before passing away at the age of 27, Lane opened a dance school in London.

We move in celebration of William Henry Lane’s life and historical contributions to dance.

To learn more, visit blackpast.org/tag/choreographer-dancers