DALLAS — “Tear up your ticket, join our picket!” and “Dallas Black, bring them back!” were two of the spirited chants by 50 pickets backing the fired Dallas Black Dancers here Oct. 11. They were protesting at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s “DanceAfrica” performance, put on Oct. 11 but with nonunion replacement performers.
The theater had just announced its new season, so the dancers’ union, the American Guild of Musical Artists, is doing the same. The union’s “Season of Solidarity” gave the fired dancers the opportunity to speak out about their fight.
In May the dancers had voted to join the union and theater bosses then fired them. “Auditions usually happen in the spring, so right now it is midseason and hiring is slow,” Gillian Clifford, one of those fired, told the Militant. “But the Dallas Opera has hired some of the fired dancers.”
“We will be picketing at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s other performances this weekend,” Griff Braun, national organizing director for the American Guild of Musical Artists, told the rally.
Sean Smith, a member of the Dallas Black Dancers for 14 seasons, told the Militant they are “seeking reinstatement.” He encouraged people to “checkout the Dallas Black Dancers Theatre Instagram to keep up with what is going on with our fight.”
A number of other unions participated, including the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Dallas AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, the musical artists union at Dallas Opera, Actors’ Equity, Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 100 and more.
“We are standing in solidarity with them,” Christopher Harrison, a singer at the Dallas Opera, said.
Several fired dancers spoke at the rally. “Don’t let the pressure down,” dancer Sharon Smith told the protest. “Companies are watching in California, Phoenix and Denver because the Black dancers are setting an example.”