The Swans of Harlem : Fifty years of sisterhood, five black ballerinas, one incredible story

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 WILLIAMSHarlem 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 abou