Is there a topic more ideally suited to the picture-book format than dance? Dancers are a whirlwind of limbs, seemingly in constant motion; picture books freeze these moments in time, allowing readers to pore over them. Few do it better than Joy Michael Ellison’s Willi Ninja: Vogue Legend, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali (Candlewick, May 5). Known as the Godfather of Vogue, Willi Ninja showed off his martial arts–inspired moves at drag balls in 1980s New York City, where Black and brown dancers built tightknit queer communities in the face of oppression.
Ellison and Ali follow Willi from a wide-eyed young boy attending performances at the Apollo Theater to a world-renowned dance and fashion icon. Ali’s mesmerizing artwork blends hyperrealism with fantastical elements: Willi tumbles across pages rippling with kaleidoscopic colors; at his first ball, he strikes a pose, lightning bolts emanating from his hands and feet. What emerges most strongly is Willi’s bold attitude; he encountered discrimination but refused to tamp himself down. Ellison urges readers to follow suit: “[Wear] your favorite clothes and dance like only you can. Work, baby, work!”
Ellison and Ali’s biography joins a slew of dance-themed picture books that encourage young people to believe in themselves—and to show it. Robyn McGrath’s Brave New Ballet: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, illustrated by Alexander Mostov (Penguin Workshop, March 3), focuses on the New York City dancers who “kicked through barriers to follow their dreams.” Founded in 1974, this all-male ballet company performs female roles in drag, bringing a satirical element to their work (“a raised eyebrow, a sassy chassé, or a flip of the wig”); they persevered even as early audiences walked out. Simultaneously graceful and whimsical, this is a magnificent portrait of artists who proved that ballet could be funny, strange, and provocative—and no less beautiful for it.
Three decades earlier, choreographer Agnes de Mille left a similarly irreverent mark on the regimented world of ballet with Rodeo, in which dancers channeled their inner cowpoke. The show launched a storied career, as author Claire Wrenn Bobrow and illustrator Ilaria Urbinati demonstrate in Cowboys at the Ballet: The Story of Choreographer Agnes de Mille (Atheneum, March 31). Their stirring picture book is a profile in courage; though de Mille’s creative dance mashups (“a fragment of folk, / a morsel of modern”) were dismissed at first, she eventually wowed audiences with her unique vision.
For many little ones, simply stepping out onto the dance floor can be overwhelming. The protagonist of Brandi-Ann Uyemura’s I Am a Bon Dancer, a work of fiction illustrated by Amy Matsushita-Beal (Holiday House, March 24), recoils in embarrassment after making a misstep at the Obon festival, a Buddhist event observed throughout Asia. But Grandpa Jo explains that they perform Bon Odori not to show off but to remember their ancestors, and the child dances with a newfound joy. Uyemura and Matsushita-Beal reassure young people afraid of public failure—a universally felt insecurity—while honoring a uniquely Japanese tradition; backmatter explores how Bon Odori bolstered emigrants who left Japan to work the sugarcane plantations in Hawai‘i.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
