Based on William Melvin Kelley's 1964 short story collection, Dancers on the Shore is an anthology series exploring the lives of Black families in Harlem and The Bronx. The series draws from Kelley's original sixteen stories about three families; the Careys, the Dunfords and the Bedlows—some interlinked and spanning generations from Reconstruction-era South to 1980s New York—as well as additional works he published elsewhere.