![]() I’d never heard classical music before then. I was very comfortable dancing to pop music and hip-hop and soul, so when I was introduced to this ballet class, it was so far from anything I’d ever seen or experienced or really had any interest in. At 13, I was captain of the drill team for my middle school, which was a huge deal because I was so introverted, so shy. That was kind of what I saw, and I was like, that’s what I want to do. And then, my older sister was on the drill team at our middle school and high school. I grew up watching my mom - she would always dance around the house, she would choreograph stuff for us, like talent shows, because she danced growing up, nothing serious, but she went on to become a professional cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs. At exactly 13, we were living in a motel, and that was when I was introduced to ballet. ![]() But we had moved out of my stepfather’s home, and we were kind of in between living in people’s homes. I was still attending the Boys & Girls Club, which was such a safe haven for me and my five siblings. Misty Copeland: My mom had recently gotten her fourth divorce, and we had settled in San Pedro, Calif., which I consider my home - that’s where I spent the most time in my childhood and where I feel like I established a sense of community. Can you tell me about that first class and 13-year-old Misty? when you were 13, which I know is considered late for your field. ![]() This interview has been edited for clarity and length.ĭessane Lopez Cassell: You took your first ballet class at a Boys & Girls Club in L.A. On a sticky summer afternoon in New York, I sat down with Copeland over Zoom to discuss “Flower,” performing for film versus the stage and finding respite in the methodic rhythms of ballet. With their debut short film “Flower,” the pair pays tribute to Black and brown communities in Oakland, crafting a moving meditation on housing precarity through dance. Since 2021, she’s built a network of after-school dance programs for under-resourced students through the Misty Copeland Foundation and recently founded Life in Motion Productions, a film production company, with her old friend from ABT, Leyla Fayyaz. These days, Copeland is focused on paying it forward. To celebrate LADP’s “Dance Reflections,” Sister Kokoro styled eight of the performers in L.A. Dance Project serving looksĭance gives your whole body the chance to speak. Image We interrupt your week to bring you the L.A. Her recent book, “The Wind at My Back,” is the latest in a string of titles she’s authored to celebrate the long legacy of undersung Black dancers, including her mentor Wilkinson, who in 1955 became one of the first African American ballerinas to sign with a major company, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. And in the years since being promoted to principal in 2015 - the first Black woman to do so in ABT’s 84-year history - Copeland has focused on looking forward and backward. From Victoria Rowell, the actress and former ballerina, to TV producer Susan Fales-Hill, to the late dancer Raven Wilkinson, such women became crucial anchors as Copeland navigated the grueling pace of classical ballet, as well as its regressive race and gender politics. Misty Copeland, the groundbreaking ballerina who’s spent decades making history at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, is quick to acknowledge the impact of her own “village” - a community of Black women and fellow dancers in her hometown of San Pedro, Calif., and in New York, where she’s lived and worked since 2000. And while the old proverb speaks of raising children, I’d argue the same collective effort is required to build a career. ![]() Check out the whole issue - the “New York” issue, if you’re reading between the lines - here. This story is part of “Discourse,” a fresh look at the dire state of the bicoastal conversation - free from corniness and cliches.
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