The Turning: Room of Mirrors · iHeartPodcasts and Rococo Punch

The Swans of Harlem | Part One

April 30, 2024·48 min·3 clips

While under anesthesia for knee surgery that ended her career, Lydia Abarca heard her surgeon say 'what does she expect me to do at this knee? She's too old anyway. Why doesn't she just model?'

1. The Turning's guest series features Karen Balby interviewing Lydia Abarca, the first Black prima ballerina, whose story is documented in Balby's book The Swans of Harlem. 2. Lydia Abarca grew up in Harlem's Grant Housing Projects on 125th Street with six siblings and a Puerto Rican father who worked two jobs, which she describes as 'a good preparation for Arthur Mitchell.' 3. The episode's central question is how the first Black prima ballerina could be largely erased from ballet history within a single generation. 4. Abarca received a full scholarship to Juilliard's precursor program after impressing a pianist with a split at her audition, then trained for six years doing barre exercises without ever attending a ballet performance. 5. She quit two years before finishing high school, enrolled at Fordham University on a partial scholarship, and was working at a bank when her sister mentioned a Black man in Harlem starting something with ballet. 6. Arthur Mitchell offered her $150 to quit the bank and join his company, which at the time was rehearsing in a church basement; Abarca says she did not know who Mitchell was and assumed they would eventually perform Swan Lake 'I guess.' 7. Mitchell took Abarca to her first ballet performance — a New York City Ballet production of A Midsummer Night's Dream — and she describes it as the moment she understood what ballet could actually be: 'ballet doesn't have to be this crazy fairy stuff.' 8. She describes herself as Mitchell's 'clean slate' — no preconceptions about how to be a principal dancer — and Mitchell as a master at molding her; she was given lead roles almost from the beginning. 9. Mitchell brought Abarca as his 'plus one' to fundraising cocktail parties with wealthy donors, where she observed his skill at redirecting any conversation toward 'and yes, we need money to do this.' 10. At one such party, hosts asked Mitchell and Abarca to dance for entertainment, and she felt like 'an organ grinder monkey' — the first time she thought 'if you want to see us perform, buy a ticket and come to City Center.' 11. One night, Mitchell kissed Abarca on the lips in her apartment building lobby after an evening out; she describes it as 'like a really good hug' — a thank-you rather than a romantic advance — but it confused her, and she reflects that she may have started dating another company member shortly after as unconscious visible distance-setting. 12. Abarca's pay at DTH went from $150 to $250 to $350 a week over her tenure; she was never able to help her parents buy a house or send siblings to college, and describes this gap between her public stature and private financial reality as a recurring source of grief. 13. She left to perform in The Wiz (1978 film), joining what she describes as 'every Black dancer from the city, every top model including Iman' — an event so significant she called it 'a once in a lifetime.' 14. Mitchell called the eleven DTH dancers who left for The Wiz 'the dumb 11,' but Abarca was not ready to return; she also passed on Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, which she now calls 'a bad decision,' to tour with Bubbling Brown Sugar — then got fired from that show for calling in sick to see the London cast in England. 15. She returned to DTH and was cast as the first Black woman to dance Swan Lake; she had two months to learn a ballet she had only seen in a partial Valentino's version, and stood in the wings on opening night not knowing 'what kind of bird' she was supposed to be. 16. The Swan Lake pas de deux with partner Ronald received an ovation so prolonged that they stood in the wings not knowing whether to return to the stage; she received mixed reviews and understood them — she felt the role was not her. 17. When Mitchell next planned Giselle, Abarca decided it was time to leave: 'I was 30 years old, I was making $350 a week, I was done'; she describes the weight that lifted when she walked out the door. 18. The interview is warm but analytical, with Balby pressing Abarca on the psychological subtext of choices she made decades ago — the cocktail party, the relationship, the quitting — and Abarca often saying 'I hadn't thought of it that way until you asked me.' 19. Listeners interested in the founding history of Dance Theater of Harlem, the racial dynamics of the American ballet world in the 1970s, or first-person accounts of being erased from cultural memory will find this episode compelling. 20. Those expecting discussion of current ballet, dance technique, or a broader survey of Black dance history beyond DTH's first decade will likely find the scope narrower than expected.

As heard by us

Ballet history, memory, and power stay tightly linked.

The piece keeps its focus on Dance Theater of Harlem and lets rise, memory, and discipline do most of the work. One dancer's recollection of a hug, a rebuffed advance, and the company's quick ascent gives the conversation its edge.

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Why you'd press play

You want Dance Theater of Harlem's rise told through memory, power, and private hesitation.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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