For fans of Hidden Figures and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

'The kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!' MISTY COPELAND

'Vibrant, propulsive and inspiring' TIA WILLIAMS

Harlem 1969; it's the height of the Civil Rights era and the community is still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King. Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, takes his protest to the stage and establishes the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Here begins the story of the five extraordinary women at the heart of this book.

Both a group biography and a story of a particular time, this is a book about ballet, the enduring allure of ballet for young girls, and about how these pioneers broke into a world that was closed to them and changed ideas of what a classical dancer could be. It is about the heart-breaking impact of the AIDS epidemic which claimed the lives of so many of the male dancers. It's about racism and activism through art. And it's about the eternal glamour of ballet; these swans appeared at the grandest opera houses and theatres, dancing at the White House, and even for the Queen. Their fans included Mick Jagger and they performed alongside the likes of Michael Jackson and Josephine Baker.

But most importantly it tells the universal story of female friendship, and in particular how these five young women formed a bond - while experimenting with different ways of dying ballet shoes and tights to match their skin tones - which still endures many decades later.

Harlem, 1969: Arthur Mitchell founds the Dance Theatre of Harlem. As a principal dancer, Mitchell understands the inequities of being a Black performer in the world of ballet. His mission: to form a dance troupe to prove that a person's skin colour should be no barrier to their relationship to classical dance.
From its beginnings in a church basement come dancers answering Mitchell's call: Lydia Arbaca, a Black prima ballerina who becomes the face of Revlon; Sheila Rohan, a mother and activist; Gayle McKinney-Griffith, tired of being old she can only perform modern dance; Marcia Sells and Karlya Shelton, two young women who are inspired to dance professionally after watching the Dance Theatre of Harlem perform.
From dyeing their shoes to match their skin colour to performing for the Queen and dancing in the West End, this is a story of glamour and grit but above all of a sisterhood that has endured over fifty years. Now, these Swans of Harlem have come together to tell their truth and to celebrate their legacy as pioneers of dance, changing the way ballet is perceived forever.