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Reviews tagging 'Addiction'
The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History by Karen Valby
1 review
creativelifeofliz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A delightful peek into a history that has been forgotten and overlooked for too long.
In the late 1960s during the height of the Civil Rights movement, the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) had a troupe of Black ballet dancers, including prima ballerina Lydia Abarca. She was on the cover of Dance magazine and Essence, in The Wiz and a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She and her close friends and fellow founding DTH members performed iconic ballet works in front of famous audiences, including the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder. But now their history is almost entirely ignored or forgotten, so founders Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan and first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells have teamed together to share their story with the world. The Swans of Harlem are sharing a bit of the world of Black ballet with us all.
This book hit a major emotional punch. Each of these ballerinas has seen amazing highs and also incredible lows during their lifetimes. We watch them go from young teenagers (for the most part) joining a fledgling ballet company through their lives after ballet and into the modern times where they've formed the Legacy Society to preserve the history of DTH. As they worked to become the best at their craft, there were also intersectional challenges with the racism and the AIDS crisis and family difficulties. Their stories are simultaneously relatable and awe-inspiring.
Honestly, my biggest complaint with this book is that I just wanted more. It's impossible to give an entire history of ballet in the United States, even just focused on Black ballet, in a single book, but I can't help but want that after reading the stories of the Swans of Harlem. In this respect, I suppose they have fully achieved their goals, since I now have a desire to go out and explore more on my own.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. Everyone should read it and understand another piece of history. Be prepared for an emotional read, but it will still fly by as you feel like you're sitting in a room with these women hearing their story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing an advanced copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.
In the late 1960s during the height of the Civil Rights movement, the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) had a troupe of Black ballet dancers, including prima ballerina Lydia Abarca. She was on the cover of Dance magazine and Essence, in The Wiz and a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She and her close friends and fellow founding DTH members performed iconic ballet works in front of famous audiences, including the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder. But now their history is almost entirely ignored or forgotten, so founders Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan and first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells have teamed together to share their story with the world. The Swans of Harlem are sharing a bit of the world of Black ballet with us all.
This book hit a major emotional punch. Each of these ballerinas has seen amazing highs and also incredible lows during their lifetimes. We watch them go from young teenagers (for the most part) joining a fledgling ballet company through their lives after ballet and into the modern times where they've formed the Legacy Society to preserve the history of DTH. As they worked to become the best at their craft, there were also intersectional challenges with the racism and the AIDS crisis and family difficulties. Their stories are simultaneously relatable and awe-inspiring.
Honestly, my biggest complaint with this book is that I just wanted more. It's impossible to give an entire history of ballet in the United States, even just focused on Black ballet, in a single book, but I can't help but want that after reading the stories of the Swans of Harlem. In this respect, I suppose they have fully achieved their goals, since I now have a desire to go out and explore more on my own.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. Everyone should read it and understand another piece of history. Be prepared for an emotional read, but it will still fly by as you feel like you're sitting in a room with these women hearing their story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing an advanced copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body shaming, and Racism
Moderate: Fatphobia, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, and Death
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