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Article on Misty in New York Magazine The MuseAn ABT ballerina becomes an inspiration for Prince.
For an indication of Misty Copeland’s determination, look for aYouTube clip from 1997, in which, hair pulled into a bun and wearing a black unitard, she dances en pointe to Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools.” “I’m 15 years old,” she confidently explains in voice-over. “I’ve been dancing for two years. I like the color purple, sunflower seeds, and Mariah Carey.” She adds that at an upcoming arts competition, she will dance a variation from Don Quixote, in which, she explains, “you’re supposed to flirt with the audience. And my goal is to just try to flirt with the judges and get them to smile.”
Copeland won that competition, by the way, and she can still flawlessly juxtapose a demure booty shake with a triple pirouette. At 28, she is not only a soloist at American Ballet Theatre—the first black woman in decades—but she also has a good shot at becoming its first African-American principal female dancer. “It’s not like she’s going, ‘Hey, look at me,’ ” says frequent partner Craig Salstein. “But she can be so ethereal, you just have to.”
Copeland has attracted attention practically from the moment she put on a pair of ballet slippers. “Ever since I started dancing, there was media around me—‘Oh, you’re a prodigy,’ ” she says. She grew up the fourth of six children in the seaside town of San Pedro, California, uninterested in ballet. Her heroine was gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and it was only at the suggestion of her junior-high school’s drill-team coach that she took a beginner ballet class—at the local Boys & Girls Club, “on the basketball court, in my gym clothes,” says Copeland. It was very late for an aspiring classical dancer, which speaks to what a natural she was. “I’ve always been very disciplined and organized, but I had never been part of anything organized,” she says. “I loved that with ballet I was learning something new every day.”
ABT hired Copeland when she was 18, and that’s when she became aware of just how unusual she is. “I had never, ever, thought, I’m black, and no one else looks like me,” she says. “At ABT, I realized, Oh, I do have this other thing that could work against me or for me.” At first she was learning principal roles for both contemporary and classical ballets, yet performing them only in modern pieces. “I always thought my talent would take me as far as I could go,” Copeland says. “And it was the first time I felt like maybe it wouldn’t.” Kevin McKenzie, ABT’s artistic director, insists it was technical finesse not race that held her back, but by early 2007 he noticed “an edge that had been missing. I think the responsibility of her talent dawned on her.” That August, she was promoted from the corps.
In 2009, Copeland got an early-morning phone call. “I was asked if Prince could have my cell number,” she says. “I was literally still waking up. ‘What? Prince who?’ ” The pop star, as gifted at mentoring female virtuosity as making music, was looking for a ballerina for his video of “Crimson and Clover,” and he invited Cope land to fly to L.A. the next day. “It was really just, ‘Be you, feel the music, just move,’ ” she says of the shoot. “I’m not used to that type of freedom. After every take, I’d ask him what he wanted, but he said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’ ” Last summer, Copeland performed with Prince in Nice, France, and appeared on selected dates of his Welcome 2 America tour. “I think he sees someone who’s free and spiritual,” she says, “and he’s expressed that he doesn’t see that in a lot of classical dancers.” (His appreciation extended to ABT in February, when he donated $250,000.)
As for Copeland’s day job, when the ABT season begins this month, she will have a principal part in Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet, and will also reprise a signature pas de deux in Giselle. Ballet remains the primary focus for Copeland as well as Prince. “He has never said, ‘Don’t look so much like a ballerina.’ What’s No. 1 for him is that I am a ballerina.”
We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |||||
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she's has an incrediable smoking body ...i'm a girl and straight but damn she's fine! | |
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*nods in agreement*
A bionic wonder-body, even. "I don't think you'd do well in captivity." - random person's comment to me the other day | |
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Those legs are INSANE! I'm slightly disturbed yet fascinated by them. | |
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I don't think anything will come of her and P....she's too similar to Mayte I can't see him wanting to go through all that again. She seems too work focused to be thinking of P....he wants someone devoted to him not the job. They may be friends because of the their devotion to their career but can't see much else. [Edited 5/9/11 14:36pm] | |
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Thanks for posting this, Genesia, she really is something special and moves so beautifully! Her body is so atypical for a ballerina, it's nice to see someone who doesn't look anorexic.
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We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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Simply beautiful! I am so getting my fat booty to the nearest gym to work out, so when I do go to another Prince concert I can sit in the VIP section with a short tight dress on and hopefullly his backup singer/body guard will pull me up on stage so I can dance on stage with Prince. | |
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She's got the same "challenge" as the Williams sisters. Not quite femine enough to pull off such a manly body. Space for sale... | |
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i know right ! | |
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she has a beautiful body
Misty's body is hardly manly like the Williams sisters, apples and oranges. She's much more feminine and softly graceful than either one of them. They definitely have grace in their movement, but it's 'harder' due to their sport.
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She's also around 5'2", where the Williams sisters are 6' tall. We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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Yeah, I guess that does make a difference too, I wasn't thinking about how tall she is.
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It's harder to think of someone as linebacker-esque when you're 4" taller than she is.
Many of the photographs isolate a particular feature, too - which makes it harder to see everything in proportion. We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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It's not just the height and muscles. Actually, she looks like this dude with a weave:
Space for sale... | |
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OMG she really does!! | |
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...And out come the claws. *shakes head*
"I don't think you'd do well in captivity." - random person's comment to me the other day | |
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Oh stop. Space for sale... | |
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I wasn't the one shitting on a woman whose done nothing to me - to the point of even saying she looked like a man.
I'm done with this thread. You guys are lame for that. "I don't think you'd do well in captivity." - random person's comment to me the other day | |
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She does. What's wrong with that? She looks like the twilight dude. Space for sale... | |
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How is that hating when she looks straight up like him. Oy! Take the hateration elsewhere or I'll ask that the thread be locked. Seriously. We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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Ehh? When is making an observation hating? Good grief people. I make a tongue and cheek comment and everyone starts waving their insecurity flags.
I love me some Williams sisters and don't think its rude or offensive to say they have masculine bodies and IMHO, so does Misty. And, yes, I think Misty looks like the twilight dude. Look at their freaken facial features. They could be brother and sister. Again, not hating but making an observation.
So take your claims of hateration and stick em somewhere else. Cause aint nobody hating here. Space for sale... | |
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can someone post the other pics plz the link is not working for me thanks | |
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It's "tongue in cheek," honey. English. Learn it.
And you knew when you compared Misty to a guy that people would take offense. Don't try to turn that bullshit around. We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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Wow, your life is really like that, ehh, that you gotta come here and let off steam? Tis okay! Let me give you a rainbow and sugar hug. I hope things turn around for you.
Positivity!!! Have you had your plus sign today? Space for sale... | |
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You are a real piece of work. We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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Listen to your own advice.
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Again, re-read my posts. There is nothing wrong with saying someone's musclular build looks masculine. There is nothing negative about saying one celebrity looks like another. Don't blame your own negative bais on me. The fact is, if you all had just went on an contributed your own damn opinion of the article, this whole issue would be minor. But you drag your negativity into the mix and then blame other's for being negative
Move on...be happy. Don't worry. [Edited 5/11/11 9:46am] Space for sale... | |
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10/10............plus 6ixx. | |||||
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