Misty Copeland: Making It In The Dance World

Making it in the dance world.

Misty Copeland was the first African American ballerina in the American Ballet Theatre as a principal ballerina. Copeland broke the color barrier in the ballet world when she got the principal role in a classical ballet. This made other people follow their dreams just like she did. Many people believed that you had to be white in order to go far in dance. If you were not you had no chance of making it. Although racial barriers exists in dance Misty Copeland overcame that with her talent, drive and perseverance.

Copeland went onstage for the first time when she was only five years old for a school talent show; she didn’t really recall the confidence or the rush from all the applause, she most recalls the way her

Her morning warm up is familiar to any ballet dancer, “it’s slow structured yet fragmentary- perfectly designed to bring me to center, where I can dance freely, without the barre… It consists of plies which are increasingly deeper bends of the knee, ronds de jambe which insists of a larger movement of the leg circling them and blending them into fondus , finishing with port de bras that stretch your torso forward and from side to side.” (Copeland 2). Copeland contines warming up by going across the floor doing glissades which are little jumps that go from from first position to fifth position, ending and starting in a plie. Copeland days all consisted of the same thing but she loved it and wouldn’t want it any different. After watching Copeland perform on stage everytime a new ballet company would want to work with her despite the color of her skin. Many companies like The American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, English National Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Miami City Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, National Ballet of Spain, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet. Even Prince watched her and asked her to dance with him on his tours, Copeland said yes and started dancing with him and managed to keep up in the company as well. When Prince went on a tour to Europe he offered for Copeland to be a part of some of the shows and she could kick it off with a solo. Copeland went and loved the experience from it. She gained a lot of publicity for