Begun in New York in 1953, Benna Sims’ life was marked by her skin color. “For equal quality, we will always take a white person before you. So choose what you want and you’ll have to do better than the whites, his father taught him. He knew what he was talking about, this daddy.
Descended from slaves, he had to leave the southern United States, his native Tennessee, where he had no prospect of a career. By dint of courage, he became one of the architects who built the World Trade Center in New York, the imposing complex destroyed on September 11, 2001.
“A beautiful swimming pool, new treatments” and a strict sanitary protocol at the Saint-Honoré thermal baths
At first, dancing did not interest Benna. A Catholic school student, she wants to be a good sister. “For the costume and the rosary with the big beads,” she laughs out loud. But her mother, very attached to the codes of the bourgeoisie of the time, enrolled her three children in piano lessons and her daughter in dance. At 9 years old, Benna is the only black-skinned little girl in dance class. At 12, encouraged by her teacher, she nevertheless decided to be a ballerina. And she will give herself the means.
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She works very hard, literally and figuratively, even giving lessons to the youngest to pay for her extra lessons.
She joined the Grands ballets Canadiens in Montreal. Benna meets Maurice Béjart there. Then the route of his various engagements around the world will cross that of Alphonso Cata, a close friend of Balanchine the immense Russian dancer. “I don’t like the way you dance, but I think I can do something with you,” he told her.
The only black ballerina in the American ballet theater
And, in a mirrorless studio, for four months, this world-renowned choreographer will change it from A to Z. “My muscles, my feet, my arms, everything, I absorbed everything. He made me another dancer. The contracts are linked. Benna becomes a soloist. Once, only once, for Swan Lake, she decided to be white. Three hours of makeup. And at the end of the show, her partner does not recognize her quickly enough, a fraction of a second late and he drops her. He will tell her a few minutes later: “You know, I’ve seen some whites but never as white as you. “
The great adventure of American ballet theater has arrived. “By accident,” she said. The greatest American ballet integrated it by the will of its founder Lucia Chase. “I don’t know what contract you have in Europe, but you’re going to dance with us,” she told him. But I don’t want to, I’m black, ”Benna Sims replied. She will be the first and only black ballerina in the American ballet theater. She will dance the most beautiful roles there. And there it will face the latent racism without failing.
“My ancestors were paid with lashes in the back. What I got I owe them. Yet never, since the first timid applause became in a few moments a triumph, never will she really realize. “So it is possible, is it for me? !!! “
She even remembers that the first time the choreographer put her in front for an audition, in the middle of the stage, she is so surprised and worried that she feels extreme anger. “I was so angry that I did the best performance of my life. The criticisms will be final. The back row is over for Benna Sims. She is in the light.
Life is a hallway with doors. You open, you enter or you do not enter. Some doors are closed, too bad.
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In 1982, she moved away from the constraints and the repetitive side of classical dance. She joins Alphonse Cata, her lifelong friend, her mentor. He founded the Roubaix – Nord-Pas-de-Calais National Choreographic Center, specializing in experimental contemporary dance. Then, the day she is refused a role because we are looking for a younger dancer, Benna Sims will take this rebuff for a chance. “For me, dancing was on stage. Not to another function, not elsewhere. “
She then became a costume designer for Disneyland, responsible for the design office responsible for the design of costumes for Disneyland Paris. She stayed there for 17 years before choosing to retire. “And to think that I had signed a contract to make the hats of the extras,” she smiles. “
Benna Sims has remained loyal to Roubaix, a multicultural city that suits him perfectly. “In my neighborhood, where we come from all walks of life, I was the official translator of Donald Trump’s approximations. I have to say that his idea of bleach injections to treat Covid has met with real success … but not with esteem. “
His motto: “Life is a hallway with doors. You open, you enter or you do not enter. Some doors are closed, too bad. “
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