The Swans of Harlem (Adapted for Young Adults)

Starred review from October 15, 2024
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* During the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, five former dancers reconnected over Zoom to form the 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Council, determined to preserve the groundbreaking work and immense talent of Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). These women--Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton--were among its founding or early company members, yet history did not remember their names. Valby, a white journalist with two Black daughters involved in ballet, took notice of the Legacy Council and knew it was time for these women to resume their places in the spotlight. Structured in three acts, like a ballet, this powerful account is part cultural history, part biography as it traces the formation, rise, and decline of DTH through the experiences of these five ballerinas, as well as their continued importance to dancers of color today. The book's introduction states, "Black excellence is not a one-off but a spectacular ongoing fact," and the ensuing narrative underscores this truth over and over again through the astonishing accomplishments of these dancers in their own rights as well as in conjunction with the racism and colorism so ingrained in the world of classical ballet. While dancers and Misty Copeland admirers are the obvious audience, this will appeal equally to fans of forgotten histories, such as Hidden Figures (2016), by Margot Lee Shetterly.

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November 1, 2024
Valby's young readers' adaptation of her 2024 adult title of the same name describes how five trailblazing Black women broke color barriers in the world of ballet. There is no more quintessentially American story than that of the birth of the Dance Theater of Harlem. Mentored by George Balanchine himself, Arthur Mitchell became New York City Ballet's first Black principal dancer. After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Mitchell vowed to build a school where Black people could thrive in a predominantly white art form. His extraordinary vision was built on the backs of five ballerinas--Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton--whose triumphs, tribulations, and journeys toward sisterhood make this story compulsively readable. Valby's chronological account alternates among the women's perspectives, detailing the prejudice that they battled within the company and in the dance world at large. She also doesn't shy away from exploring Mitchell's own internalized racism and misogynistic treatment of his dancers, even as he urged them on to greatness. Prima ballerina Abarca became Mitchell's muse and was feted and celebrated, yet she struggled under the intense pressure to be perfect. This collective biography presents an unflinching portrait of the problematic perfectionism still pervasive in ballet, while joyfully celebrating a sisterhood of dancers who made an indelible mark by demonstrating the beauty of Black bodies to the world. Unfortunately, the work does not contain a source list. A poignant and gripping piece of little-known history. (index)(Nonfiction. 14-18)

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