Cincinnati’s Black ballerina to headline booksigning

By Michiko Clark& Special to the Herald The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their 50-year sisterhood, was a legacy erased from history — until now, thanks to author Karen Valby’s new book, “The Swans of Harlem.” One of the five history-making Black ballerinas was Cincinnati native Marcia Sells. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company — the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black Company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, and an Essence cover star; she was cast in “The Wiz” and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends — founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Lynn Sells of Cincinnati. Marcia Lynn Sells began her life in the arts as a ballerina at the Dance Theatre of Harlem and, before that, in the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2021,...