The Swans of Harlem

As I mentioned in a recent post,  I have been fascinated by ballet and its history for most of my life. So when I began to see notices for a book about the forgotten Black ballerinas who danced for the Dance Theatre of Harlem I was eager to get my hands on it.  It lived…

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Shin-Kickers from History: The Griffin Sisters and Vaudeville

In the 1910s, Emma and Mabel Griffin were a well lnown vaudeville act. Performing as the Griffin Sisters, they combined comedy routines with music and dance numbers. (Mabel was the straight woman. Emma got the punchlines.) They had started working as chorus girls in variety shows in the 1890s. By the beginning of the twentieth…

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1924: A (Really Long) Year in Review

This was the year that inspired me to return to writing “A Year in Review” posts. Things related to 1924 caught my attention over the course of the year. Not just events related to Sigrid Schultz and Nazi Germany, though obviously that was part of it. The more notes I took about 1924, the more…

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