Pilcher, Evelyn, 1922-2013

Evelyn Pilcher (1922-2013) was an African American dancer who was involved with two pioneering 20th century Black ballet troupes and later was briefly a member of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.

She was born in New York City on March 21, 1922. By the mid-1930s, Pilcher already had established herself as a dancer, performing as part of a juvenile dance specialty act with partner(s) Alvin Padgett and/or Pearl Harrison at nightclubs, charity benefits, and other social events in Harlem. She also worked with Eugene von Grona's American Negro Ballet company. While it is not clear how long she was affiliated with the company in its various iterations, she most likely was in the ensemble at the company's premiere performance at the Lafayette Theatre in 1937. Around 1940, Pilcher became a member of the experimental Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre and appeared in Agnes de Mille’s new work, Black Ritual (Obeah), which received a few performances as part of the company's first season at the Center Theatre in New York. Later that same year, Pilcher joined the Katherine Dunham company and would appear with the other Dunham dancers in the new Broadway musical, Cabin in the Sky (1940), directed by George Balanchine. Pilcher would perform with the Dunham company in New York and on tour through 1943. She returned to Broadway as a dancer in the cast of Carmen Jones (1943) and also was in national touring companies of the revival of Show Boat, 1947-1948. One of her fellow Show Boat cast members was another former Dunham dancer, La Verne French. During the 1950s, Pilcher and French formed a nightclub act, billing themselves as “Velyn and La Verne.”

In 1949, Pilcher married Charles A. Crittenden. She passed away in New York on January 31, 2013 at the age of 90.