If you haven’t heard of ballerina
Misty Copeland, you
haven’t been paying attention. Ms. Copeland has been featured on ABC and NBC
news programs, in niche magazines Dance and Pointe, Essence and Ebony, has
toured with the artist Prince, and was recently award the Young, Gifted, and
Black Award during the Black Girls Rock Award show.
Misty Copeland (Photos copyright 2011 Ballet Theatre Foundation)
from http://africlassical.blogspot.com/
As she mentions in the speech, Ms. Copeland was one of six
children. Her single mom worked full time. She was discovered at age 13 on the
basketball court of the Boys and Girls Club and began taking free dance
lessons. If you’ve seen tiny girls in tutus, you probably know that 13 is
considered a “late start” for someone interested in classical ballet training.
That didn’t deter Ms. Copeland.
When she won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award,
it led to a position in the San Francisco Ballet’s summer intensive program.
Next came the summer intensive at American Ballet Theater and then a place in
the ABT’s corps de ballet. Promotions followed and in 2007, Ms. Copeland became
the first African-American female in twenty years to solo for the American
Ballet Theater. Most recently, Ms. Copeland was featured as the Firebird in Igor
Stravinsky’s, The Firebird. She
aspires to solo in classical ballets.
From JoelMindon.com
In a variety of interviews she talks about how she doesn’t
fit the typical image that many people have of ballerinas. She says that it is
difficult to be a person who stands out in an art form where you want to blend in
and be part of a group (the corps). “[I’m] a curvy woman in this field. Being
black and having started late.” One of the difficult pieces of the puzzle for Ms. Copeland was
the lack of African-American mentors in the ballet world. “I went through times
when I felt like didn’t belong. Not really because I was being told I didn’t.
But I just didn’t feel like I looked like anyone around me.” (
NBC interview)
Even though Ms. Copeland couldn’t find the people who looked
like her in classical ballet or even in books, she did find mentors to help her
along the way. She cites strong black women in general and specifically Raven
Wilkinson who fought discrimination in the 1950’s to dance for Ballet Russe as
one of the first black ballerinas.
Now, Ms. Copeland is a mentor to many other young ballerinas
of color to whom she says, “Black girls can be ballerinas.” Ms. Copeland has
two books in the works. One is a memoir, Life
in Motion: An unlikely ballerina. The other is a book for children coming
out in 2014 (G.P. Putnam Books for Young Readers) with illustrations from
Christopher Myers. (If I can get one, I’ll review it for you here!)
Until then, I’ll remind you of a wonderful retro-read by
Debbie Allen. Yes, if you are the same vintage (age) as I am, you remember Debbie
Allen as the stick pounding dance master on the TV show Fame.
Her book Dancing in
the Wings, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, pubbed in 2000 is still relevant
today. I have an affinity for the main character Sassy who, like me, is tall with
big feet. She is afraid that because her body type doesn’t match those of the
other dancers, she will not be recognized for her talents. With some wise
advice from her Uncle Redd, and a few missteps during an audition, she finds
her path and a place in the summer dance festival in Washington, DC. The story
is the classic ugly duckling turns swan but Sassy’s big personality (like her
feet), the way she stands up to her brother’s nonsense, and the amazing
illustrations by Kadir Nelson make this a great read.
No. I only do cross-country to stay in shape. (haha) I don't see myself running a marathon for multiple reasons including the fact that I don't enjoy running long distances that much.
I like our practices generally when we scrimmage. I feel like it brings out a great competitive side out of everyone and you feel like it's game time. Depending on the team I'm on, I'm generally a leader although when I am on higher teams I sometimes follow.
Sun Sentinel
HuffPost Sports
The Guardian
HuffPost Impact
Daily Mail Online