The Swans of Harlem | Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of sisterhood, and the Reclamation of Their Groundbreaking History by Karen Valby
Pantheon Books |
Dance companies take a break from programming over the summer months, so it can be a perfect time to catch up on dance books, old and new. this year has many new offerings to choose from. – from Deborah Jowitt’s granular biography of Martha Graham and to books about the activist aesthetic of Capoeira. And among the best is Karen Valby’s ‘The Swans of Harlem, a bio-history of the first generation of Black Ballerinas at Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Valby vividly evokes the company’s first decade and the singular careers of the defining first generation of DTH ballerinas- Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith , Sheila Rohan, Marsia Sells, and Karlya Shelton`- dancers of colors who had aspired from childhood to be ballerinas, even as they were being tarlya Shelton told as student dancers, no matter how talented, that they would never be able to be professional dancers the white world of classical ballet. The ballerinas had already faced years of racism just to be able to train in ballet studio classes,
Everything changed for them when dancer-choreographer Arthur Mitchell founded Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1968 against all odds. Mitchell was the first Black dancer hired by George Balanchine in the 1950s and broke a color line, but his hiring didn’t provide any path for other dancers of color. Mitchell eventually left NYCB in 1966 and two years later founded the National Ballet Company of Brazil,, but after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Mitchell decided to stay in New York and co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Even as Mitchell believed that it took ten years to develop the technical artistry for a classical dancer to reach the standard he was setting. He was determined to do it in less than two years.
DTH’s initial years included performing a triumphant European tour including a sold- out run in London and a return week added before returning to the US. Triumphant tours in the Caribbean Islands, Brazil and Mexico. Meanwhile, legendary artists aided Mitchell expanding his vision. The A-list of stars included in making it Cecily Tyson, Carmen De Lavallade, Eartha Kitt, Josephine Baker, Ossie Davis, Tania Leon, Tanaquil Le Clercq, et al. The company and the school expanded significantly through the 90s, but operational costs forced a shutdown in 2004 for eight years, the company regrouped in 2012, and Mitchell turned over the reins to former DTH star Virginia Johnson.
The ballerinas recount their history with the company, the struggles, their camaraderie, their bouts with an often-tyrannical Mitchell, their decisions to pursue other careers in and out of the dance world and raise families. There were some bittersweet words between Mitchell and the Swans, but they always tried to make peace. Valby’s portrait of the complex, driven Mitchell, is both unflinching and deftly observed.
The contributions and legacies of these dancers had been largely forgotten by this generation of dance artists. How the dancers persevered abiding to his uncompromising demands is testament to their love of ballet and their steeled resolve to be part of it. And Valby tells their individual stories in vivid detail, and in the process, documents essential dance history. Their combined journey is one of the most inspiring stories in the history of dance in America and until recently has been largely forgotten. So ‘The Swans’ took matter into their own hands.
When Misty Copeland was lauded as the first Black Ballerina at American Ballet Theatre to be promoted to the rank of Principal it was headline news. Copeland was portrayed as the ‘first’ Black classical dancer jete-ing over the ballerina color line. For her part, Copeland tried to correct the record, that there were indeed many ballerinas of color going back decades. But the pathetic reality remains there are still relatively few dancers of color on the rosters of classical ballet companies in the US.
During Covid-19 industry shutdown they decided to remind the dance world and beyond by rescuing their own history by establishing the 152 Street Black Ballet Legacy Council. A way to document their stories and the lives of other dancers of color in their era, and before, made inestimable contributions the field, onstage and off, which has been largely forgotten, ignored or erased.
‘The Swans of Harlem’ is one of the most vital dance books of the year.
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