The Dance Institute of Washington on 14th Street Northwest was a flutter of activity Sunday morning. Parents lined the lobby on the ground floor, some corralling strollers in one hand and their child’s dance shoes in the other. Upstairs in Studio A, the 11 a.m. dance class was just getting underway. People passed by each other in the narrow hallway as outside Studio C, ballerinas stretched in silence ahead of their auditions.

The busier than usual scene was due to an unusual Sunday audition at the Dance Institute: Philadelphia’s Chocolate Ballerina Company is putting on the first production of Swan Lake with all Black and brown dancers later this spring, and its founder was was in town to audition dancers in the D.C. area.

“When I walked in the building, I almost inhaled because the air in this amazing institution, it just screams for success,” said Chanel Holland-Pierre, founder and artistic director of Chocolate Ballerina Company. “This institution is like a magnet that just brings all the passion of true artists into one area.”

Some 25 ballerinas ages 12-17 filtered into the studio throughout the day, participating in a two-hour group workshop in barre, center floor and pointe activities. (Seven of them were officially auditioning, while others were attending a workshop.) Later, they broke off for their individual interviews with Holland-Pierre and other Chocolate Ballerina Company administrators who had made their way down I-95.

All of the dancers were professional or pre-professional ballerinas. Most have been in similar productions like The Nutcracker or Giselle with various companies. Chocolate Ballerina Company’s corps de ballet starts at age 17, but they’re also accepting individuals as young as “advanced 12-year-olds” who could be a part of the court scene or the wedding scene — shorter excerpts that call for younger dancers, Holland-Pierre says.

“All of the swans have to look alike,” Holland-Pierre says. “If not in physicality, then in movement, longevity, skill, and taste.”

Historically, European ballet has not been accommodating to Black dancers — discrimination that has been long lasting and proven harmful to aspiring ballet dancers who are rejected at auditions more frequently than their white peers. Pioneers like Arthur Mitchell, who founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem, Doris Jones, and Claire Haywood of D.C.’s Jones-Haywood Dance School have been working for decades to address that damaging school of thought while creating communities where Black and brown ballet dancers can thrive.

Holland-Pierre is another artist in that tradition. She founded Chocolate Ballerina Company in 2017 to provide “hope, discipline, and confidence” to underserved communities through dance and professional development. This past December, they performed Nutcracker: Dipped in Chocolate, casting the classic holiday production with all Black and brown dancers.

D.C. has been a go-to stop for auditions since the beginning; one of the first dancers Chocolate Ballerina signed came from the D.C. region and blew Holland-Pierre away with her dedication and persistence.

“DMV dancers are very specific on what it is they want, where it is they’re trying to go, and the process to get them there,” Holland-Pierre says. “Everybody has this aura with them. They’re receptive to new information, but they’re also pushing out passion and love and purpose.”

As the day continued, Holland-Pierre had the dancers close their eyes to break out of the morning malaise and focus on the technique. She had them mix up their spots in the room, and told them she could tell who was having fun based on their facial expressions, even for those who were masked.

Anne Arundel County resident Jada Hicks led the group portion of the audition. Hicks was a student at Dance Institute of Washington from 8th grade until she graduated high school in June 2022, and Sunday was her first time teaching at her former school as an alumna.

“It was amazing. I enjoyed it, everybody was so beautiful,” Hicks says. Knowing that she was part of the audition process, she said it was enjoyable to hear the adjudicators’ commentary about what they were seeing and who they thought would fit in each role.

Though she’s in college now, Hicks knows she wants to stay in dance. She’s starting her second semester as a freshman at George Mason, where she’s majoring in dance and minoring in arts management and hopes to work in choreography or dance administration some day.

“I’m thankful for Chocolate Ballerina Company,” Hicks says. “I really love how they offer free dance classes to the youth in the Black community, which is really underrepresented. And even the Dance Institute of Washington, they really represent just Black excellence. And Black ballerinas, which is really important. Representation is everything.”

The dancers who tried out Sunday will know Tuesday night whether they landed a spot. Then, Chocolate Ballerina Company is off to Baltimore next week for the next stop on their auditions tour.

The Black Swan: A Swan Lake Premier will debut later this spring at a still-to-be determined theater in Philadelphia.