Born: 31 July 1901, United States
Died: 1986
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Julia Vincent Cross, the name she used professionally as a performer, teacher, and writer, studied dance in Paris with Olga Prebreojenska and Alexander Volinine, and in New York City with Mikhail Mordkin and Alexander Gavrilov. She had also studied painting and drawing in New York and at L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Her professional dance performances began in 1927: most of her engagements were with the Mordkin Ballet, and she also appeared with the St. Louis Opera Company (1927), the New York Outdoor Stadium (1929), and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (1933).
Starting in 1938, she began to teach dance in her own studio as well as for organizations such as the Dance Notation Bureau. With her husband Philip Evergood (birth name, Philip Blashki), she supported social justice causes, appearing in benefit performances. Her husband, who also designed costumes and created libretti for some of Cross’s choreography, received commissions from the WPA for murals and art projects from 1934 to 1937. She studied acting and appeared onstage in a number of plays in the 1940s and 1950s, such as the pre-Broadway production of The Gypsies Wore High Hats at Falmouth Playhouse in Massachusetts and an off-Broadway production of Angel Street. In the 1950s, she published a number of articles about dance teaching and the Mordkin ballet technique.
Julia Vincent Cross was born on July 31, 1901, in Sandwich, Massachusetts; her twin sister, Ann, was born the following day. In 1924, while studying painting and dance in Europe, she met artist Philip Evergood (1901-1973), and they married in 1931. In 1973, Evergood died in a house fire that also destroyed much of his artistic output. She died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1986.