The swans of Harlem : five Black ballerinas, fifty years of sisterhood, and the reclamation of their groundbreaking history / Karen Valby.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK * The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history--until now.

"This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!" --Misty Copeland, author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy

"Utterly absorbing, flawlessly-researched...Vibrant, propulsive, and inspiring, The Swans of Harlem is a richly drawn portrait of five courageous women whose contributions have been silenced for too long!" --Tia Williams, author of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company--the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other's chosen family. She was the first Black company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet's most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends--founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.

These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again--to share their story with the world.

Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In this meticulous expansion of a 2021 New York Times article by Valby, five women reflect on their time as ballerinas with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, an all-Black troupe founded in 1969 by George Balanchine protégé Arthur Mitchell. Prima ballerina Lydia Abarca longed for stardom and financial security; Gayle McKinney-Griffith left Julliard for the opportunity to dance with the company; Sheila Rohan balanced dancing with her home life as a married mother of three; Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells were in awe of the three above-mentioned founding members and moved across states to join the troupe. The five women made their way onto national and international stages just as a backlash to the civil rights movement began. They also dealt with varying degrees of colorism, criticisms of their bodies, and Mitchell's domineering behavior and teaching methods. Even so, there is joy in the way the women discuss their decades-long friendships and trailblazing performances in this book. VERDICT Valby gives each dancer space for their stories to naturally flow, writing them as fully realized individuals with their own hopes and dreams. A heartwarming addition to performing arts biographies.--Anjelica Rufus-Barnes

Publishers Weekly Review

Vanity Fair contributor Valby (Welcome to Utopia) paints a vibrant portrait of the "first permanent Black professional ballet company" in the U.S and the five trailblazing dancers who put it on the map. Originated in 1968 by George Balanchine protégé Arthur Mitchell, the Dance Theatre of Harlem featured "founding" ballerinas Lydia Abarca, Mitchell's "prized" dancer who later landed on the covers of Essence and Dance magazines; Sheila Rohan, who performed while running a household and raising three children; Juillard-trained Gayle McKinney-Grffith, who served as the company's "ballet mistress" and later taught choreography for the 1978 film The Wiz; Marcia Sells, who joined the company at just 16; and Karlya Shelton, who stepped in with little notice to star in the 1978 production of Serenade. The company shattered artistic boundaries even as it strained under financial pressures, the whims of the brilliant yet tyrannical Mitchell, and an old guard media that favored more renowned--and more white--troupes. Valby meticulously untangles the prejudices woven into the dance world and analyzes the politics of establishing a Black ballet company amid a period of backlash to the civil rights movement ("Let the gorgeous lines of his dancers' bodies serve as fists in the air," she writes of Mitchell's mission). In the process, Valby successfully counters the perception that Misty Copeland was the "first" Black American ballerina. The result is a captivating corrective to an often-whitewashed history. Agent: Barbara Jones, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Apr.)

Kirkus Book Review

A journalist uncovers the forgotten legacy of a group of pioneering Black ballerinas. In 1969, Arthur Mitchell--"the first Black principal dancer" of George Balanchine's famed City Ballet--"formally incorporated" the Dance Theatre of Harlem, writes Valby, an Austin-based journalist and former EW writer. Begun in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, the theater's purpose was to "once and for all prove that a person's skin color was irrelevant to their right or relationship to classical dance." To this end, Mitchell recruited and trained a collection of talented Black ballerinas, including Lydia Abarca, the company's prima ballerina, who dreamed of one day buying her parents a house; Sheila Rohan, whose widowed mother had raised her on Staten Island; and Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton, who left their Connecticut, Ohio, and Colorado families (respectively) to try to make it in the world of New York dance. In its early years, the theater grew thanks to the talent, strength, grit, and ingenuity of these remarkable women, who, in a time of intense racial inequality, earned standing ovations on European tours and solicited donations that would keep the company afloat for decades to come. Together, they weathered Mitchell's tyrannical training techniques, colorism, and sexual harassment, all of which complicated their idolization of the man they credited with the success of their careers. Valby, "a white woman with two Black daughters who are dancers themselves," is a skilled storyteller with an eye for significant details and thematic complexity. While her decision to begin and end the book with Misty Copeland's widespread misidentification as the first Black prima ballerina detracts from the dynamic, tumultuous, and inspiring journey of the five central ballerinas, the book is deeply researched and full of heart. A rich, detailed, and complex history of Harlem's first prima ballerinas. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.