Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland was born in Missouri and raised in California, and she began dancing ballet at the age of thirteen. She first saw Nadia Comăneci, who would later become her role model, in the film Nadia when she was seven. Throughout her life, she struggled through bouncing from home to home, due to a messy parental divorce as well as facing a legal custody battle. In 1994 after her mother first separated from her father, Copeland’s whole family was forced to live in a small apartment in which she and her siblings all slept on the floor. She then later joined a free ballet class and was invited to attend the San Pedro Dance Center. However, she had to decline as transportation was too expensive. Her mother’s close friend, Cynthia Bradley, nevertheless insisted and began driving Misty to the dance classes everyday and allowed for Misty to stay with her during the week in order to continue dancing. Her first major achievement was at the young age of 15 when she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. A few years later, she joined the American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet on a full scholarship. Later in 2007, she became the company's second African American female soloist. Although she was beginning to prosper, Misty soon returned to her mother’s house, where their relationship began to falter. Her mother did not allow Misty to go back to dancing and completely cut off contact with Cynthia. With that, a long battle began between Misty and her mother, where Misty filed for emancipation, later retracted it, and then returned to high school and to her mother once more. 

Throughout her dancing life, Misty had constantly heard for years how the color of her skin, body and hair was not typical for what “ballerinas should look like’. In dance the standard outfit includes pink tights, which were created in order to match the lighter tones of White dancers, but as Misty began to dance, she felt it made her stand out even more. “There were times that I was not cast in certain roles because I would stand out too much and kind of ruin the aesthetic, especially if it was a performance that was being filmed.” While dancing at American Ballet Theatre, she was forced to constantly lighten her skin during performances, but eventually, she took a stand against it and started to bring up serious conversations to staff members about allowing dancers of color to truly embrace who they are. 

During one of her largest accomplishments of playing Odette in Swan Lake, Misty used her high status to create a special spotlight for diversity in dance, changing the perspective of who can be a ballerina in the process. “You shouldn’t have to have a certain body type. You shouldn’t have to have a certain color skin or be a specific age. If you have the right dedication and commitment and support – I think anyone should be able to do this.”