A Dance Like Starlight

Subtitled “One Ballerina's Dream,” this iconographic-animated adaptation of author Kristy Dempsey and illustrator Floyd Cooper's 2014 picture book is narrated by Bahni Turpin and presented in realistic oil wash. A Dance Like Starlight focuses on a little black girl with dancing dreams in 1950s Harlem. “Hope can pick your dream up,” Mama says, “off the floor of your heart.” And Mama would know, thanks to her hard work handling and cleaning the costumes for a nearby ballet school. Tagging along with her mother, the girl impresses the ballet master with her copycat of routines—performed in the wings—and she joins the lessons (although not in front with the white girls)—and is good enough to be picked out for a demonstration. Seeing a picture of “colored” prima ballerina Janet Collins in the newspaper inspires the mother and daughter to go see the dancer at the Metropolitan Opera for a night full of awe and joy. An engaging ode to hope and aspiration, this is recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (J. Williams-Wood)