Overcoming Adversity: Misty Copeland

Works Cited

"ABOUT." Misty Copeland. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

Blumberg, Naomi. "Misty Copeland | Biography - American Dancer." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

"I Will What I Want." Under Armour. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.

"Misty Copeland: Principal Dancer." ABT: Dancers. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

"Misty Copeland: The Cover Girl for a New Kind of Ballet." Interview by Anthony Mason. CBS Sunday Morning. CBS News. 14 Dec. 2014. Television.

"60 Minutes: Misty Copeland." Interview by Bill Whitaker. 60 Minutes. CBS News. 10 May 2015. Television.

This summer, Misty Copeland made a visit to my home town, Toledo, Ohio. I couldn’t go listen to her speak because I was out of town, but some girls from my dance studio and a few of my teachers got the chance to go listen to her speak about her life and what it is like to have a professional dance career. I interviewed my dance teacher Jen (right) about what Misty talked about.

Q: What were the main points of Misty’s speech?

A: She talked a lot about her childhood and how she had a difficult time growing up. She had a single mother and siblings, and they never had enough money. Although her childhood was difficult, when she was a teenager she started ballet at the Boys and Girls Club and she said that was her favorite way to get away from the difficult times at home. Also she talked about her self confidence issues in her young age. Being a teenage girl is hard enough with all the pressure to look like everybody else, but when she always had people telling her to quit her dream because she didn’t have the right body, it really took a toll on her emotionally.

Q: What was the most important thing that you took away from listening to Copeland speak?

A: I learned that through perseverance and hard work that you can achieve anything you want with your life.

Q: What was it like to see your students performing for her?

A: A lot of them were more nervous than I had ever seen them before, even my older dancers. They said they were pretty intimidated by her, but it was truly an honor to see her watch my kids.

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Shubeta-Harris

With Copeland’s entrance into the professional world of dance, many would say she rocked the boat a bit. This photo is from a performance of Swan Lake, where the two leads of the show, as you can see, were both African American. Before Copeland was involved in the American Ballet Theatre, this was extremely uncommon. This is just one example of how Misty changed the face of dance forever. Many people don’t understand the value of what she actually did, but she has inspired not only dancers, but young people everywhere to reach for their dreams no matter what they are told by others. I think everyone needs a little bit of Misty Copeland in themselves. She is strong, inspirational, beautiful, but most importantly, she is fearless. She was never afraid of what other people thought of her because she had so much faith in herself. Misty Copeland is a person that I, and many other people, aspire to be like. She overcame adversity by doing nothing but working hard and believing in herself.

Photo: http://www.npr.org/sections/dance/

America is a beautiful place. We may have our issues, but I would rather have the issues that we have instead of the issues that some other countries have. The American dream is a set of ideals that people believe are possible for them to achieve when they come to this country. It usually applies to people who immigrate to America, but the dream can be achieved by anyone. Misty Copeland achieved this dream. Her childhood was not easy, and her family never supported her dreams. She continued anyway, because she knew what she wanted and wasn’t going to give up without a good fight. Thank God she had that fight in her, because if she didn't the dance world would be a very different place. 

Photo: http://anewdomain.net/2015/06/18/dont-blame-america-blame-american-dream/

Racial prejudice has been apparent in the lives of Americans and people around the world since before we can remember. Although there are no longer laws here prohibiting people of certain races to have certain rights, there are still people that believe in the values of the past. This is Jackie Robinson, who became the first African American to play on a major league baseball team. This occurred when America was in a much different place than it is now, and Robinson probably went through worse than Copeland did, but their stories are still similar. Robinson was told no from the beginning. He was told from a young age that he would never make it as a baseball player because of the color of his skin, so he should just stop trying. Copeland was told the same exact thing. Not only about her skin, but about the way her body looked. She was too muscular and not slender enough, so she wouldn't look like the other girls. These are just two of the hundreds of stories of racial prejudice within athletics. If these two people gave up and stopped fighting for what they wanted, our country could be such a different place, and I know it’s not a place that I would want to live in.

Photo: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb9e2490

When someone hears the name Misty Copeland, they think of the beautiful woman on stage in a bright fluffy tutu, and not much else. Ballet is a sport. It is a competitive, exhausting, strenuous activity that requires just as much athleticism as an NFL football player, or an olympic sprinter. This photo is one of the many photos of Misty from her “I Will What I Want” Under Armour campaign. In this photo alone you can see the amount of muscle and poise she has gained from training so hard for so long. Ballet is not all about the pink tutus and the stage lights. It’s more about the blood, sweat, and tears that are shed to make it to that stage. The position that Copeland is in now was not just handed to her. She had to work even harder than the average aspiring dancer to get what she wanted and she did it.

Photo: https://www.pinterest.com/balletli/misty-copeland/

As previously mentioned, Misty Copeland was the first African American person to become a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. This graph displays the diversity within one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the country, the Joffrey Ballet School. As you can see, an overwhelming percentage of students in the school are white. Thanks to Misty Copeland, the face of ballet has been drastically changed. Before Copeland, young girls who were extremely talented dancers sometimes gave up on their dreams because they were told that they didn’t have the right look. Misty was told all of the same things, but she never gave up. She is the reason that all young girls in America can aspire to be whoever they want to be.

Misty’s new book covers it all, in the best way possible. I think the most important part of her story is her childhood, which is a big piece of this book. Her battle for custody between her mother and her dance teacher is nothing that a teenage girl should ever have to go through. Within a year or two of beginning ballet, Misty knew that she didn’t want to stop any time soon, but her mother had other plans. Her mother wanted her to stop dancing, which is what caused all the problems in the first place. Misty’s childhood was not easy, but in her book she talks about how she does not resent her mother, and how her difficult childhood was one of the many things that pushed her so hard to become the best she could be.

Photo: http://www.amazon.com/Life-Motion-An-Unlikely-Ballerina/dp/1476737983

Kevin McKenzie has been the director of the American Ballet Theatre since October 1992. As director, he is “steadfast in his vision of ABT as ‘American,’” and “committed to maintaining the Company’s vast repertoire, and to bringing the art of dance theatre to the great stages of the world,” (ABT.org). McKenzie was working hard on improving the Company as a whole when he met Misty Copeland. He had known about her because she had participated in one of their summer intensives, and she was named ABT’s Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. After watching Misty dance, he knew she would help him toward his next step for the Company, and he invited her to be a member of the Studio Company, which was just the beginning for Copeland. “She has a proportion to her body, and she has a response to music-- a visceral response to music... And a coordination, that are all the ingredients of a major ballet dancer,” (McKenzie).

Photo: http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Kevin+McKenzie/Misty+Copeland/Winter+TCA+Tour+Day+13/rDPES4EV1BU

As she grew, Misty continued to blossom in dance. Calling her a hard worker would be an understatement. She worked with trainers and teachers at a few different studios, but other than that Copeland was pretty much on her own. She still had her mother and siblings, but no one understood how badly she wanted to dance for the rest of her life, and although her relationship with her family was civil, it was never the same after she attempted to emancipate herself from her mother at age 16. She was courageous and strong, but most importantly she was independent. Copeland’s will power and independence went hand in hand, and she could not have had one without the other. 

Photo: http://www.picturequotes.com/independence-quotes

Copeland’s childhood was probably the most difficult section of her life. Her mother was remarried multiple times, so her and her siblings never had a permanent place to live. They moved to multiple cities in California until finally settling in a motel in San Pedro, California. In hopes of becoming a professional ballerina, most girls begin ballet training immediately after they take their first steps. Misty wasn’t even introduced to dance at all until she was 13, when she began taking dance at the local Boys & Girls Club. As Misty’s training became more serious, her mother started to become apprehensive. She believed that dance wasn’t something that Misty could be successful at, and she wanted her daughter to be able to make money, instead of waste it all on her lessons. It was a tough battle, but Misty pulled through, and thank goodness she did. Without her perseverance, Misty never would have made history, and she never would have become an inspiration to young dancers everywhere.

Photo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/misty-copeland-principal-dancer_n_7699706.html

This is Misty Copeland. She lives the dream of aspiring ballerinas everywhere; she is a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, but she is much more than that. Copeland is ABT’s first ever African American principal dancer. Principal dancer is the highest position a dancer in ABT can hold, and it has been Copeland’s dream to achieve this goal since the age of 13. You would think that would be a long time, but in the dance world, starting as a teenager is a major setback. However, Copeland had more to worry about than just her age. She had more critics than fans, but all that ever did was push her to be better. “You can do anything you want, even if you are being told negative things. Stay strong and find motivation,” (Copeland). Looking back, Misty could have used someone like herself to push her to keep moving forward when life got tough. But she made it through, and now she is an inspiration to people everywhere that overcoming adversity is possible.

Photo: http://www.thenewpotato.com/2014/10/22/misty-copeland-ballet/

The American Ballet Theatre, founded in 1940, is one of the greatest ballet institutions in the world. Over the years it has changed and grown under the leadership of many different individuals, but that is what makes the group so unique. Other ballet companies around the world have been the exact same since they were founded, but not ABT. “The aim was to develop a repertoire of the best ballets from the past and to encourage the creation of new works by gifted young choreographers, wherever they might be found,” (ABT.org). The way that ABT tries to always stay unique is what sets it apart from other classical ballet groups around the world. 

Photo: http://aballeteducation.com/tag/american-ballet-theatre/