Mural design honoring Philadelphia's Black ballerina pioneers unveiled ahead of installation

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A new mural celebrating Philadelphia's pioneering Black ballerinas is one step closer to reality after the design for the city's first Black Dance Mural Project was unveiled on Tuesday.

The artwork, created by lead artist Bernard Collins Jr., will stand 30 feet tall and 43 feet wide in the Fairmount neighborhood.

Collins said the project centers on honoring dancers whose contributions have long gone unrecognized.

"The primary focus of the mural was to celebrate Black women in dance who hadn't been celebrated before," Collins said.

The design features trailblazing figures, including Joan Myers Brown, Marion Cuyjet, and Sydney King, who died at age 104 in 2024.

Culture and arts advocate Karen Warrington, a former ballerina who helped Mural Arts Philadelphia secure a wall for the project, said the mural highlights a history the city has often overlooked.

"What Philadelphia doesn't want to remember is that Black children or young people were not welcome in white dancing schools," Warrington said. "They were a core of Black women that taught dancing to Black children and opened schools."

Warrington said the mural carries personal meaning.

"My mother took me to a recital of the Sydney King School of Dance," she said. "And I saw people who looked like me, and they were twirling and jumping and moving all parts of their bodies, and I was hooked from then on."

Collins said he hopes the mural inspires young dancers who see themselves reflected in the artwork.

"You can do anything that moves your heart, anything that moves you," he said. "Once you see yourself represented, things become more possible."

Once installation begins, the mural is expected to take two to three months to complete.