02/07/2015
Celebrated ballet dancer Misty Copeland had a comparatively late start in ballet: she took her first class at the age of thirteen at her local Boys & Girls Club. But her talent for dance gave Copeland, one of six children, a chance to shine. It wasn't long before she was attracting the attention of major ballet companies across the US -- and making history as the first African American female soloist at the American Ballet Theater (ABT) in twenty years.
Copeland’s family was living out of a hotel room when she took her first ballet class; she and her five siblings struggled for space to sleep on the floor. She was anxious and saw herself as undersized and gangly: “I was never, you know, the popular one, the pretty one,” she says. “These big long feet and skinny legs and skinny limbs were all these things that I thought were negative things in how we view beauty in our society, and then when I was introduced to the ballet world, all of those qualities were beauty for a ballerina.”
Copeland’s talent was obvious immediately, and within three months, she was already dancing on pointe, a technique that many dancers work for years to achieve. At the age of fifteen -- two short years after starting lessons, and competing against girls who would have been training for ten or more years -- Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Award. That’s where she caught ABT’s eye, and soon, they had offered her a spot with the company.
The 32-year-old Copeland has now danced for ABT for fourteen years, working her way up from the Corps de Ballet to a Soloist position; in 2012 she made history as the first black woman to dance the title role in Stravinsky’s “Firebird”. Her dream is to become the first female African-American Principal dancer for ABT. Copeland is also working hard to generate interest in ballet among the general public: she has a popular Instagram account, she’s been a guest judge for reality show “So You Think You Can Dance,” and she’s appeared in a number of commercials including one for Under Armor that recently went viral.
She wants boys and girls everywhere to know the value of working hard for your achievements: “I think the dancers that succeed have this fight in them,” she says. “They usually aren’t the ones that are the super talented ones that were prodigies growing up, but they’re the ones that were told ‘no’ over and over again that seem to succeed, and I think that’s what’s helped me.”
Misty Copeland is the author of a new picture book about a little girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina, "Firebird," for ages 4 to 8 at http://www.amightygirl.com/firebird
She also recently published an excellent memoir for older teen and adult readers, "Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina” at http://amzn.to/1qah0xn
For an inspiring children’s book about a would-be ballerina who has to overcome her fears of being difference, check out Debbie Allen's “Dancing In The Wings” which is loosely based on her own experiences -- for ages 4 to 8 at http://www.amightygirl.com/dancing-in-the-wings
For two more excellent new books about another rising African-American star of the ballet world, Michaela DePrince, we also recommend “Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer” for ages 6 to 9 (http://www.amightygirl.com/ballerina-dreams) and “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina” for ages 11 and up (http://www.amightygirl.com/taking-flight).
For more stories about Mighty Girl dancers, including biographies of famous dancers like Martha Graham, Maria Tallchief, and Isadora Duncan, visit our "Creative Arts" section at http://www.amightygirl.com/books/general-interest/creative-arts
And, for Mighty Girl stories for children and teens that emphasize the value of persistence and determination, visit our "Perseverance" section at http://www.amightygirl.com/books/personal-development/values?cat=219
Thanks to the Girl Scouts of Western Washington for sharing this image!
