Doris Jones, 92; trained future stars at ballet school
Doris Jones, a dancer who gave black youngsters in segregated Washington the chance to study classical ballet and then trained some of the most accomplished dancers in the country, died of pneumonia Tuesday at Washington Hospital Center. She was 92.

Doris Jones, 92, a dancer who gave black youngsters in segregated Washington the chance to study classical ballet and then trained some of the most accomplished dancers in the country, died of pneumonia March 21 at Washington Hospital Center.

There are plenty of pioneers in the ballet world, choreographers who have molded the art form into new shapes, taken it in new directions, given it new meaning. And then there is ballet teacher Doris Jones, who took one of the most revolutionary steps of all by simply throwing open her doors to Washington's black children.

Doris W. Jones, 92, Ballet Dancer Who Founded School for Blacks, Is Dead
by JENNIFER DUNNING for the New York Times

But some did allow her to stay and watch classes, and so she learned by observing and listening as well as by reading about ballet. Soon she began to teach students herself, at first in her parents' home. In 1933, she founded her own school in Boston; it was later directed by a student of hers, Elma Lewis, who became another influential teacher of black dancers.

published: April 4, 2006