Sydney Magruder Washington | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mitchellville, Maryland United States |
| Education | Woodward Academy Skidmore College |
| Occupations | Ballet dancer, blogger, actress |
| Spouse | |
| Website | The Black Swan Diaries |
Sydney Magdalene Magruder Washington is an American ballet dancer, actress, blogger, and mental health advocate. She was listed as one of21 Fierce Black Feminists To Follow byHuffPost in 2017 and included inWoke 100 Women byEssence in 2018.
She works as a freelance ballet dancer and musical theatre actress in New York City and is signed with Resolute Artists Agency.[1] She has danced in productions of the balletsThe Nutcracker,Swan Lake,Les Sylphides, andThe Firebird and in the musicalsAnything Goes,Godspell,Curtains, andThe Wiz.[2]
Magruder Washington is amental health activist and advocates formental illness awareness, particularly for women of color, LGBTQ people, and dancers.[3][4][5] Magrduer Washington launched a blog calledThe Black Swan Diaries where she writes about her experiences as a queer, black, Catholic woman in dance living with mental illness. She uses her blog as a platform to encourage breaking the stigma of mental illness. On August 3, 2017, she launched a private online community, calledWarrior Swans (Ballerinas for Mental Health), for pre-professional and professional dancers struggling with mental health issues.[6] She also uses herInstagram andYouTube accounts for advocacy.[7]
On 7 January 2019 she served as a panelist forOpen Spectrum: A Brilliant Darkness - A Conversation with Artists on Mental Health atNew York Live Arts.[8][9] She is a mentor for Brown Girls Do Ballet Ambassador Program, helping young dancers of color who are working towards professional careers in dance.[10]
Magruder Washington has been featured inTeen Vogue,Pointe,Dance Magazine,O, The Oprah Magazine,BuzzFeed, andHealth.[2][11] She was ranked 44th inWoke 100 Women byEssence and was featured in theHuffPost list21 Fierce Black Feminists.[12][13]
Magruder Washington hasAsperger syndrome,panic disorder withagoraphobia, andmajor depressive disorder.[14][6][15] Prior to being correctly diagnosed with autism, she was misdiagnosed withattention deficit hyperactivity disorder aged 11.[16]
As a teenager, Magruder Washington no longer identified with Pentecostalism and spent two years exploringJudaism andIslam. She later converted toCatholicism, taking theconfirmation nameMagdalene. She is a parishioner atSt. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church on theUpper East Side ofManhattan. Magruder Washington joinedBlessed is She, an online community for Catholic women in the United States, but faced discrimination in the group from members who did not approve of her sexual orientation and marriage. She was often reminded by members of the Catholic Church'steachings on homosexuality. She later described her exclusion in the group on her blog, stating that she did not fit well in the group of mostly white, middle class, heterosexual Catholic women.[17]
She is openlylesbian and married Elena Washington in aninterdenominational ceremony atRiverside Church inMorningside Heights on May 12, 2017.[18][19][20]