THE SWANS OF HARLEM and Those Who Paved the Way

Clark Center NYC, the organization dedicated to preserving and continuing the legacy of the Clark Center for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with acclaimed dance/theater project From the Horse’s Mouth, will celebrate the extraordinary legacy of five trailblazing Black ballerinas whose groundbreaking careers and enduring sisterhood are chronicled in journalist Karen Valby’s acclaimed book, "The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History." The three tribute performances of "From the Horse’s Mouth: The Swans of Harlem" support the forgotten legacy of a group of five pioneering Black ballerinas during the formative years of Arthur Mitchell’s DANCE THEATER OF HARLEM. The cast will include the four surviving “Swans” Marcia Sells, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton-Benjamin and Lydia Abarca Mitchell and in memory of Gayle McKinney-Griffith, alongside former DTH dancers, colleagues, and collaborators.