I wanted to create a story about a little girl in 1960s Harlem receiving ballet shoes in her colour for the first time. Ballet shoes to this day are created mostly in a pale pink colour called "ballet pink". Thus, many darker skinned dancers resort to "pancaking" their shoes, piling brown makeup on their shoes. This makes a mess and is costly— professional dancers can go through a pair of pointe shoes in a week.
Virginia Johnson of the Dance Theater of Harlem once stated “this isn’t about shoes, it’s about who belongs in ballet and who doesn’t.” Ballet is about making lines, and these lines are broken up if the tights and shoes do not match with the dancer's skin tone. Ballet is a collaborative art where synchronisation and identically comes from the embodiment of the dance— not just skin tone. All bodies belong in ballet.
As a non-black person, I will not be expanding on this narrative. If you are a black writer and are interested in this idea, please feel free to contact me! I would love to expand on this with your voice and be the illustrator.
This is my moodboard which provided me sources for poses, environment design and emotion. As an artist who isn't black but is depicting a black story against the context of the civil rights movement, research research and research was important. Arthur Mitchell, the first male African American dancer at the New York City Ballet (1955) founded the Dance Theater of Harlem in 1969 to create a space for other black dancers to train without the constraints of racism effecting their practice. The mood of my drawing came from a tribute video to him on his dance school's website and it really just celebrated his role in a predominantly white industry. He stated in an interview that “Harlem is a magic word” and I wanted to pay tribute to that. T
I found that it was important to me that the scenes would look like a stage. Theatre can be emotional, comedic, romantic, dramatic! I wanted to utilize that for my character, who essentially loves to dance and perform. She is always the star of the show from our seats as readers. For some scenes, such as the theatre, we experience things from the character's point of view, to see what she sees and experience the beauty of her
world with her.
world with her.
These thumbnails are sketches for the final image you first see on this page. I wanted to illustrate the scene where she feels extreme joy! I felt strongly about showing the streets of 1960s Harlem and my character's community because it's a key part of who she is.