THE SWANS OF HARLEM (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG ADULTS)

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.