The Unlikely Dream
By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
American Ballet Theatre ballerina, Misty Copeland, reached a new milestone this past month when she was named principal dancer at the storied national dance company.
When Random Lengths interviewed the emerging icon in 2011, she was in the middle of Prince’s “21 Nite Stand” tour at The Forum. She had landed commercial contracts with ProActiv and Blackberry and was making regular rounds at late-night talk shows such as Lopez Tonight and the Tavis Smiley Show.
Never shy about talking about her humble beginnings being raised by a single mother, Copeland has often said a girl like her isn’t supposed to be where she is today. Care and nurturing by people and institutions made it possible, along with a belief in herself.
“You have to believe that you’re good enough…that you’re worthy and know that it’s not easy,” Copeland said. “You have to put in the work, but you also have to allow yourself to dream.”
Copeland’s reply reminded me of a 1995 ABC News clip in which sports correspondent John McKenzie asked tennis legend Venus Williams if she could beat a particular top-ranked player. Without hesitation, Venus said she could. But McKenzie asked again with a degree of doubt. Venus’ father Richard then backed him down, stating “She already told you what it was going to be.”
Say what you will about Richard, his faith and confidence in his daughters gave them unshakeable faith and confidence in themselves.
“It’s not me that’s standing up here. I’m constantly saying that…but it’s everyone who came before me and got me to this position, and all the little girls that can see themselves through me,” Venus said at the time.
Copeland had a constellation of supporters including Dana Middle School drill team coach Elizabeth Cantine, who saw Copeland’s potential as a 13-year-old child when she auditioned for drill team captain, and Cindy Bradley of the San Pedro Ballet, who ultimately gave Copeland the foundation of classical ballet training on the basketball courts of the San Pedro Boys and Girls Club.
Copeland recalled in 2011 how Bradley sent her home with several letters offering a scholarship to train at her studio.
“The first couple [of letters] I didn’t give to my mom because I didn’t want to go back,” Copeland recalled.
The advanced class she tried was intimidating and she didn’t have a means of getting to the studio.
“Eventually she got to my mom and convinced me to come back,” Copeland said. “I started at a beginner level and it took off from there.”
Copeland eventually came to live with Bradley five days a week to accommodate her around-the-clock training. The time also allowed for the acculturating needed to navigate the world of ballet.
Even after she left the comforts of home for the American Ballet Theatre’s Corps de Ballet in New York, Copeland still needed a corps of cheerleaders to reinforce what she already knew. During the press conference on the day of the announcement, Copeland recalled how mentors such as Lauren Anderson, the first African-American principal dancer with the Houston Ballet, and Raven Wilkinson with the Ballet of Monte Cristo in the 1950s, greeted her on the stage with flowers following her debut as the lead of Swan Lake this past year.
“I think I would have had a completely different path if there had been more before me,” she said. “Maybe I wouldn’t have worked as hard, I don’t know. But I think this would have been a completely different path.”
She admitted to having moments of self-doubt and wanting to quit, while wondering if there was a future for a black woman in classical ballet.
Copeland noted that race and racism wasn’t something talked about when she was a child. She didn’t have a concept that she was different until she joined the Corps de Ballet at 19.
“When I joined the Corps de Ballet…I looked around and saw only one in a company of 80 dancers,” Copeland said. “I think that’s when I stepped back and said ‘Is this really the path for me. Do I really have a future here?’ I considered dancing at Harlem because I’d be surrounded by people who looked like me and I’d probably get every opportunity I wanted.”
Becoming a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre was the dream. Giving up the dream wasn’t an option.
In her recently published memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, Copeland describes challenges she faced from both the standpoint of race and class status:
I was 19 years old and had just been promoted to American Ballet Theatre’s corps de Ballet. The Corps is an integral part of a dance company, the base that helps to weave the balletic tale. But for most ballerinas the goal is to soar beyond it, to stand out enough to get a featured part, and hopefully, one day, become a principal—that small band of stars. For now, though, I was just one of the cattle, and it was intensely competitive. No one in the main company knew that I was a prodigy who had started training 10 years later than most girls, nor did they care to find out. My reputation didn’t precede me; I had to start from scratch. I felt that the other dancers, and even some of the instructors, were constantly judging me, and that many wondered why I was there at all. Perhaps some of it was in my head, but despite my love for ABT, I felt very much alone.
When my second year in the corps came, I had another obstacle in my way: I was not the same ballerina that ABT had known before. I had finally had my first period and gained 10 pounds. Where there had been buds that could barely fill a bra, my breasts became full and voluptuous. They were so foreign to me that they were uncomfortably heavy, and I was startled when I looked in the mirror. My body had completely changed. Like myself, I soon realized that ABT, too, was searching for the little girl that I had been.
Copeland noted that despite her success, she still has to work hard, mostly because she still has to deliver at the same level or better to push back against any notion that her success stems from anything other than hard work and talent.
“With everything that’s happening, I go into ballet class every morning; I work my butt off eight hours a day because I know I have to deliver when I get on the stage,” she said. “I have to go out there and perform live every night and prove myself, maybe more so than other dancers because people are assuming ‘Why is she getting this attention?’ or ‘Is it really because of her dancing?’”
As Copeland’s star has risen on stage, her participation since 2009 in multiple tours with Prince and her racking up of endorsement deals, including Under Armour sports apparel, have led to ever-growing opportunities off the stage.
This fall, Copeland will be making her Broadway debut in On the Town, a special two-week run from Aug. 25 to Sept. 6. She’ll be taking over for New York City Ballet principal Megan Fairchild as the main love interest, Ivy Smith.
When she was asked if there were any other dreams on her bucket list, Copeland said she’s already achieved her dream by becoming a principal at Ballet Theatre. The challenge now is to live it.