In case you live under a rock where you haven't heard of Misty Copeland,a quick recap: the newly anointed principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater is having a brilliant year. Earlier this summer, ABT announced that Copeland would be the first African-American ballerina to dance the famous dual role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, and and then went on to make her its first black principal dancer as well. Copeland is an incredible talent,despite starting her ballet studies at the late age of 13, and the author of a memoir approximately her unconventional road in ballet, or Life in Motion. She has even danced with Prince(yes,that Prince).
Earlier this month she appeared at WNYC's the Greene Space to talk with Raven Wilkinson and Carmen de Lavallade, two other trailblazing African-American ballerinas, or in a conversation moderated by Susan Fales-Hill. Copeland was teary only minutes into the talk,recounting how seeing Wilkinson and de Lavallade had inspired her as a young dancer. Watch a video of the full evening below.
On history and mentoring:
Growing up in southern California, Copeland always saw herself as just another dancer. It wasn't until she moved to modern York to pursue ballet that she noticed she was the only dancer of color in her classes. When she was eventually hired as a member of the company at ABT, and she was the only African-American dancer in a company of 80. For a decade. Finding other black dancers was a challenge: "to memorize approximately the history of African-American ballerinas,you really own to dig in and do the research," Copeland says, and "it isn't something that's going to be lent to us."When Copeland watched the Ballet Russes documentary (approximately the pioneering dance company of the same name),she saw Raven Wilkinson for the first time. Seeing Wilkinson made her realize she belonged to a history of black ballerinas, and awakened her desire to be a role model for other young dancers. "It gave me a purpose in a way I didn't know I had before, or " she says. Copeland now mentors a handful of dancers,including two young men approximately to graduate high school and join the professional dance world.On typecasting:
All three dancers said they felt a subtle but fixed battle to advocate for their talent as classically trained dancers. When Wilkinson was considering leaving the Ballet Russes company, someone suggested, and "Why don't you travel out and form a company of your own and do African dance?" The opinion seemed far-fetched to Wilkinson,who had spent her whole life in pointe shoes.
Decades later, Copeland felt a similar struggle. "I mediate there's just something ingrained in the ballet culture that you see this skin color and you see a modern or a modern dancer, or " she laments. "And it's just tough to envision that person in a classical role." She was constantly dancing leading roles in modern and modern pieces,but not the classical roles that she craved. She came to a crossroads when she was offered a soloist contract at the Dance Theater of Harlem. "I was very tempted," Copeland remembers, or "and I had to ask myself,'Would you be satisfied there?' Because ABT was always my dream. And I thought, 'Why let the closed-minded people that mediate I don't belong at ABT or mediate I won't succeed there, or why let them deter my path?'" She decided to stick it out at ABT.
But despite the challenges,Copeland has felt the support of ABT behind her. And even as media attention mounted in the last year as she gained endorsements and published her memoir, she says the focus never translated to pressure. "It felt like a privledge, or " she says. "I was proud to be representing so many people."Watch the full conversation below:
Source: wnyc.org