Short Fuse Podcast #68: “The Swans of Harlem”
By Elizabeth Howard
Episode Summary
The Swans of Harlem details the forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas — Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton, and Marcia Sells — and their 50-year sisterhood. Karen Valby, the book’s author, and Lydia Abarca, a prima ballerina and one of the Swans, talk to Elizabeth Howard about their success on the stage, and the challenges they faced. Arthur Mitchell, founder of The Dance Theater of Harlem, gave them the opportunity to perform. Their legacy had been erased. Until now.
Episode Notes
The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and the Reclamation of Their Groundbreaking History by Karen Valby.
The Swans of Harlem tells the forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now.
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. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star, and was cast in The Wiz and on Broadway with Bob Fosse. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with her closest friends — founding members of the company the Swans of Harlem, Gayle McKinney, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton — for the Queen of England and Mick Jagger, with Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond.
Some 40 years later, when Lydia’s granddaughter wanted to show her own ballet class evidence of her grandmother’s success, she found almost none, aside from some yellowing photographs and programs in the family basement. Lydia had struggled for years to reckon with the erasure of her success, as all the Swans had. Still united as sisters in the present, they decided it was time to share their story themselves.
Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamor and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of their historic careers, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long. During Covid, five ballerinas met weekly on Zoom and formed the 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Council. Karen Valby joined them and wrote their story.
“Karen Valby’s The Swans of Harlem brings to life the stories of Black dancers whose contributions to the world of ballet were silenced, marginalized, and otherwise erased. Karen introduces readers to important figures of our past, while inspiring us to courageously chase our dreams.” — Misty Copeland
“These five original Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerinas fell in love with an art form that most of America believed was white and should remain so. Upon Arthur Mitchell’s founding of an all-Black company in 1969, they eagerly took their places at the barre and challenged themselves to the utmost. They triumphed. They showed that Blacks could not only excel at classical ballet but could also shape the art in their own vibrant image. Karen Valby weaves their stories together as a choreographer would: the women form an ensemble, yet each gets her own riveting solo. It’s thrilling to watch as they join forces at last and claim their unique place in American ballet’s past, present and future.”— Margo Jefferson
152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy Foundation: The 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy is an independent nonprofit organization created by five trailblazing Black ballerinas. Their professional careers began at the founding of Dance Theatre of Harlem, where their sisterhood was born. They have enjoyed and nurtured their sisterhood for over 50 years and continue to thrive for the sake of preserving their rich history.
Lydia Abarca Mitchell is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and their first prima ballerina. She danced leading roles in George Balanchine’s Agon, Bugaku, Concerto Barocco, Allegro Brillante, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Swan Lake, Jerome Robbins’s Afternoon of a Faun, Ruth Page’s Carmen and José, William Dollar’s Le Combat, and Arthur Mitchell’s Ode to Otis, Holberg Suite, and Biosfera. She was featured on the cover of DanceMagazine, in the movie The Wiz, and on Broadway in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. It was a stunning career on the world stage.
Karen Valby is also the author of Welcome to Utopia, and a contributor to the New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, Fast Company, and Entertainment Weekly.
Dance Theater of Harlem: The Dance Theater of Harlem was founded in 1969, during the Civil Rights movement, by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook.
The Short Fuse Podcast is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Howard. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, the Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others. Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015), and Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. @elizh24 on InstagramLearn more at Elizabeth Howard.
The Short Fuse is distributed through the Arts Fuse, an online journal of arts criticism and commentary.