India Bradley has become the first Black female soloist for the New York City Ballet company. Bradley was promoted alongside five other soloists, including Victor Abreu, Dominika Afanasenkov, Naomi Corti, Mary Thomas MacKinnon and Andres Zuniga, according to The New York Times.
Bradley was mentored by ballet legend Andrea Long, who was with the New York City Ballet for eight years before joining the Dance Theater Of Harlem as a principal dancer.
Bradley has been with the New York City Ballet company for eight years, wowing people on the stage while making history.
In December 2023, she became the first Black woman in the New York City Ballet to dance the role of Dewdrop in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.
She told Girls United, “It was very important to me. Many African-American women went through this company at different times and were not given the opportunity. I can tell you it had 50 percent to do with the fact that they were Black.”
“It was a really special experience. Doing those steps, in a role that is cherished by some of the most iconic dancers, feeling how it felt to be in the costume, I’ll never forget that,” she said.
Being the first Black woman in that position, she clarified, was an unforeseen development. The pacesetter started dancing when her mother, Judy, a choreographer and instructor as well as a former member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, introduced her to it.
“She would be teaching master workshops, and I would always be with her,” Bradley recalled. Though her mother had no intention of having Bradley become a dancer, allowing her to be part of her classes to keep her from disrupting her work undoubtedly set the way for her, and she didn’t stop there.
After receiving training at Mitchell’s Dance Theater of Harlem, Bradley attended the School of American Ballet for four years at the age of fourteen. She subsequently received an offer to work for the New York City Ballet after foregoing college.
Bradley has previously appeared in new dances choreographed by Tony winner Justin Peck and the Solange Knowles-scored “Play Time.”
The trailblazer is not only a powerful force in her industry but also demonstrates her ability to hold her own, as evidenced by her appearances in corporate ads wearing box braids and her activism on social causes.
Nonetheless, after taking on one of the most desired roles in ballet in December 2023, queries about why she hasn’t been promoted to soloist or principal arose on posts praising her performance.
“I just work hard. Everything else—the snarky comments, passive-aggressive racism, and what other people decide to say and do—is just none of my business. Maybe that’s a bandaid, but it’s working for me at the moment,” she said at the time.
