Misty Copeland
Encyclopedia
Misty Copeland is an American ballet
dancer, described by many accounts as the first African American
female soloist
for the American Ballet Theatre
(ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet
companies
in the United States (along with New York City Ballet
and San Francisco Ballet
). However, Anne Benna Sims
and Nora Kimball
, who were with the ABT in the early and mid 1980s respectively, preceded her. In this role as the third African-American soloist and first in two decades with ABT, she has endured the cultural pressure associated with it.
Copeland is considered a prodigy
who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet
until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians
, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation
by Copeland and restraining order
s by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.
In 1998, Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center
Spotlight Award as the best dancer in Southern California
. After two summer workshops with the ABT, she became a member of the Studio Company in 2000, a member of the corps de ballet
in 2001, and a soloist in 2007. Stylistically, she is considered a classical ballet dancer. As a soloist since the autumn of 2007, she has been described as having matured into a more contemporary and sophisticated dancer.
and raised in the San Pedro community of Los Angeles, California
. She is of African, German and Italian descent. Copeland is the youngest of Sylvia DelaCerna's four children from her first marriage. Her siblings from that marriage are Erica Copeland, Douglas Copeland Jr., and Christopher Ryan Copeland. She also has two younger half-siblings, Lindsey Monique Brown (a track star at Chico State University) and Cameron DelaCerna, one each from her mother's second and third marriage. Sylvia DelaCerna, a former Kansas City Chiefs
cheerleader, had studied dance.
At age eleven, she found her first creative outlet at a Boys & Girls Club wood shop class. Copeland never studied ballet or gymnastics formally until her teenage years. However, she did enjoy choreographing flips and dance moves to Mariah Carey
songs in her youth. Copeland's natural presence and skill came to the attention of her drill team coach, Liz Cantine, at Dana Middle School in San Pedro. She was first introduced to ballet in classes at her local Boys & Girls Club. DelaCerna allowed Copeland to go to the club after school until the workday ended and Cynthia Bradley, a former working dancer with companies in San Diego, Virginia
and Kentucky
, taught a free ballet class there once a week. Bradley invited Copeland to attend classes at the small local ballet school, San Pedro Dance Center. However, Copeland initially declined the offer because her mother did not have a car, and her oldest sister Erica was working two jobs. Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro Dance Center when Cynthia Bradley began picking her up from school. Soon after she and her mother moved to a motel in Gardena, California
they signed a management contract as well as a life-story contract, and Copeland moved in with Bradley. She spent the weekdays with the Bradleys near the coast and the weekends at home with her mother, a two-hour bus ride away. By the age of fourteen, Copeland was the winner of a national ballet contest and won her first solo
role.
The Bradleys introduced Copeland to books and videos about ballet. When she got to see Paloma Herrera
perform at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
, Copeland began to idolize her as much as she did Mariah Carey
. After three months of study Copeland was en pointe
. The media first noticed Copeland when she drew 2,000 patrons per show as she performed as Clara in the The Nutcracker
after only eight months of study. A larger role in Don Quixote and a featured role in The Chocolate Nutcracker, an African American version of the tale that was narrated by Debbie Allen
, soon followed.
When she was fifteen years old, Copeland won first place in the Los Angeles Music Center
Spotlight Awards and subsequently began her studies with Diane Lauridsen of Torrance's South Bay Ballet at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. The competition was held at the Chandler Pavilion on March 24, 1998, and Copeland said it was the first time she ever battled nervousness. The winners received scholarships between $500 and $2500. Copeland's victory in the 10th annual contest among gifted high school students in Southern California
secured her recognition by the Los Angeles Times
as the best young dancer in the Greater Los Angeles Area
.
Copeland studied at the San Francisco Ballet
School after winning the Spotlight award. While training with Bradley she selected the workshop with the San Francisco Ballet over offers from the Joffrey Ballet
, Dance Theater of Harlem and three other companies. As a student, Copeland had a 3.8/4.0 GPA through her junior year of high school.
for tenth grade. After Copeland returned from her summer 1998 San Francisco Ballet experience, her mother informed her that she would be staying with her and not resuming her study with the Bradleys. Copeland was distraught with fear that she would not be able to dance. She had heard the term emancipation while in San Francisco; the procedure was common among young performers. The Bradleys introduced Copeland to Steven Bartell, a lawyer who explained the emancipation petition process. Copeland says she understood the process as a way to make everything better. The Bradleys encouraged her to be absent when the emancipation petition was delivered to her mother. Copeland ran away
from home for three days and stayed with a friend.
After her mother reported Copeland missing, she was told about the emancipation petition. Three days after running away, Copeland was taken to the police station by Bartell, who filed emancipation papers. Copeland's mother subsequently applied for a restraining order, which included the Bradleys' five-year old son who had been Copeland's roommate. The order was partly intended to preclude contact between the Bradleys and Copeland, but it did not have proper legal basis, since there had been no stalking
and no harassment
.
In late 1998, a custody
controversy occurred involving Copeland. The case was highly publicized in the press (especially Los Angeles Times and Extra
), starting in August and September 1998. Parts of the press coverage spilled over into op-ed
articles. In the case, which was heard in Torrance
in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County
, DelaCerna claimed that the Bradleys had brainwashed Copeland into filing suit for emancipation
from her mother, and DelaCerna, who was represented by Gloria Allred
, filed a series of restraining order
s against Bartell, the lawyer who filed the emancipation charges on behalf of her daughter. Allred claimed that the Bradleys had turned Copeland against her mother by belittling DelaCerna's intelligence. The Bradleys were not intimidated by the suits and said they were willing to enforce the management contract, which gave them authority and rights to twenty percent of Copeland's earnings until she became eighteen, via the legal system.
After DelaCerna stated that she would always make sure Copeland could dance, the emancipation papers and restraining orders were dropped. Even though she had dropped the temporary restraining order request, DelaCerna wanted the Bradleys out of her daughter's life. Later in 1998, Copeland, who claimed she did not even understand the term emancipation, withdrew the request after informing the judge that such charges no longer represented her wishes. Eventually, Copeland re-enrolled at San Pedro High School
on pace to be a part of her original class of 2000 and began ballet study with Lauridsen Ballet Centre, although it was now restricted to afternoons in deference to her schooling. Afterward, all parties appeared on Leeza Gibbons
' Leeza
show. In 2000, DelaCerna stated that Copeland's earnings from ballet were set aside in a savings account and only used as needed.
in 2005. In an international ballet community with a lack of diversity, she is a rare African-American ballerina, and although she has been shielded from several issues, she endures the difficulties of cultural isolation as the second African-American ABT soloist ballet dancer. Since she is often credited as the first African-American ABT soloist ballet dancer in the press, some describe her as the Jackie Robinson
of classical ballet. Copeland also feels that since the female dancer is the focus of the ballet, her role as a trail-blazing performer and role model has extra significance. She is included in the 2004 picture book
by former ABT dancer Rosalie O'Connor that is entitled Getting Closer: A Dancers Perspective (ISBN 0-8130-2768-3). Copeland's performances with American Ballet Theatre are sponsored by Susan Fales-Hill.
She studied at the Summer Intensive Program on full scholarship for both summers and was declared ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. In the 2000 Summer Intensive Program, she danced the role of Kitri in Don Quixote
. Of the 150 dancers in the 2000 Summer Intensive Program, she was one of six selected to join the junior dance troupe. She joined the ABT Studio Company in September 2000, and became a member of its Corps de ballet
in 2001. As part of the Studio Company, which is the ABT's second company, she performed a duet in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.
. Starting in 2003, she began to be favorably reviewed for her roles as a member of the corps in La Bayadère
and William Forsythe
's workwithinwork. Recognition continued in 2004 for roles in ballets such as Raymonda
and workwithinwork, and the 2004 season is regarded as her breakthrough season. In 2005, her most notable performance was in George Balanchine
's Tarantella
. In 2006, she received a notable mention for her role in Cinderella
, and she was acknowledged for her meticulous classical performance style in Giselle
. That year, she also returned to Southern California
to perform at Orange County Performing Arts Center
. Copeland's "old-style" performance continued to earn her praise until her promotion to soloist in 2007.
season, in which avant-garde
ballets works were performed, she presented a Balanchine Ballo Della Regina
role. Her solo in this work was highly regarded although, as one of Balanchine's later works, Ballo Della Regina is not regarded as one of his best productions. Her performances of Twyla Tharp
works in the same City Center season were recognized, and she was described as more sophisticated and contemporary as a soloist than she had been as a corps dancer. As a corps member she had been recognized for prior performances of Tharp's work. Her summer 2008 Metropolitan Opera
House season performances in Don Quixote and Sleeping Beauty were well-received.
In 2008, Copeland won the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, which funds study with master teachers and trainers outside of the American Ballet Theatre. The two-year fellowships are in recognition of "young artists of extraordinary talent with the goal of providing them with additional resources in order to fully realise their potential". During the 2008–09 season, she received publicity for roles in Twyla Tharp
's Baker's Dozen and Paul Taylor's Company B.
In March 2009, Copeland spent two days in Los Angeles filming a music video
with Prince
, for the first single from his 2009 studio album
Lotusflower
, which was a cover of the "Crimson and Clover
". Prince caught her by surprise with a next-day invitation to participate in unchoreographed movements. She described his instructions as "Be you, feel the music, just move" and upon request for instruction "Keep doing what you’re doing". During the summer, her Annenberg Fellowship resulted in training for her performance in Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
's Swan Lake
"Pas de Deux". She also began taking acting lessons. That fall, she performed in the ABT's first trip to Beijing November 12 –15. The six-performance engagement was the first by an American ballet company at the new National Center for the Performing Arts.
In October 2010, she performed at the Guggenheim Museum
to David Lang
's music. During the New York City and New Jersey portions of Prince's Welcome 2 America
tour, Copeland took a few nights off from her 2010 role in The Nutcracker
at Brooklyn Academy of Music
and performed a pas de deux
en pointe
to "The Beautiful Ones
" as the opening number at the Izod Center and Madison Square Garden
. Prince had previously invited her onstage at a concert in Nice, France. Copeland was also featured in T-Mobile
's ads for the BlackBerry
in 2010. In February 2011, in honor of Black History Month
, Copeland was selected by Essence
as one of its 37 Boundary-breaking black women in entertainment. That same month, she toured with Company B, which performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre
in London. On April 13 2011, she performed alongside Prince on the Lopez Tonight
show, dancing to the song "The Beautiful Ones." Her Summer 2011 ABT performances were part of a new Alexei Ratmansky
ballet as well as a reprisal of Giselle
pas de deux. In the Ratmansky piece, Copeland earned praise for her May and June Metropolitan Opera House performances: "Misty Copeland was a luminous, teasingly sensual milkmaid. I’ll never look at her the same way again," She performed Ratmansky to a Metropolitan Opera audience that included Black Swan
star Natalie Portman
. She reprised the role in July at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with a performance described as "sly". As a flower girl, she was described as glittering in Don Quixote
. In August, she performed at the Vail International Dance Festival in the Gerald Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Colorado.
While aspiring to be a principal dancer
, Copeland has numerous goals as a dancer, in terms of leading roles. She aspires to perform lead roles in Giselle, Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère
, Juliet
in Romeo and Juliet
as well as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. In September 2011, she was featured in the Season 1, episode 5 of the Hulu
web series
A Day in the Life.
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
dancer, described by many accounts as the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
female soloist
Soloist (ballet)
In ballet, a soloist is a dancer in a ballet company above the corps de ballet but below principal dancer....
for the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
(ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet
Classical ballet
Classical Ballet is the most formal of the ballet styles, it adheres to traditional ballet technique. There are variations relating to area of origin, such as Russian ballet, French ballet, British ballet and Italian ballet...
companies
Ballet company
A ballet company is a group of dancers who perform ballet, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round basis, except in the United States, where contracts for part of the year are the norm...
in the United States (along with New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
and San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
The San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
). However, Anne Benna Sims
Anne Benna Sims
Anne Benna Sims was the first African-American danceuse at American Ballet Theatre. Sims danced with the Grands Ballets Canadiens in 1972....
and Nora Kimball
Nora Kimball
Nora Koito Kimball-Mentzos or simply Nora Kimball is a ballet teacher and former American ballerina, who is often overlooked for being one of the first African American female soloists – if not the first – at American Ballet Theatre...
, who were with the ABT in the early and mid 1980s respectively, preceded her. In this role as the third African-American soloist and first in two decades with ABT, she has endured the cultural pressure associated with it.
Copeland is considered a prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
until the age of 13. By age 15, Copeland's mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal proceedings involved filings for emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
by Copeland and restraining order
Restraining order
A restraining order or order of protection is a form of legal injunction that requires a party to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. A party that refuses to comply with an order faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
s by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.
In 1998, Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center
Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
Spotlight Award as the best dancer in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. After two summer workshops with the ABT, she became a member of the Studio Company in 2000, a member of the corps de ballet
Corps de ballet
In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who are not soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers. A corps de ballet works as one, with synchronized movements and corresponding positioning on the stage...
in 2001, and a soloist in 2007. Stylistically, she is considered a classical ballet dancer. As a soloist since the autumn of 2007, she has been described as having matured into a more contemporary and sophisticated dancer.
Early life
Copeland was born in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
and raised in the San Pedro community of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. She is of African, German and Italian descent. Copeland is the youngest of Sylvia DelaCerna's four children from her first marriage. Her siblings from that marriage are Erica Copeland, Douglas Copeland Jr., and Christopher Ryan Copeland. She also has two younger half-siblings, Lindsey Monique Brown (a track star at Chico State University) and Cameron DelaCerna, one each from her mother's second and third marriage. Sylvia DelaCerna, a former Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
cheerleader, had studied dance.
At age eleven, she found her first creative outlet at a Boys & Girls Club wood shop class. Copeland never studied ballet or gymnastics formally until her teenage years. However, she did enjoy choreographing flips and dance moves to Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
songs in her youth. Copeland's natural presence and skill came to the attention of her drill team coach, Liz Cantine, at Dana Middle School in San Pedro. She was first introduced to ballet in classes at her local Boys & Girls Club. DelaCerna allowed Copeland to go to the club after school until the workday ended and Cynthia Bradley, a former working dancer with companies in San Diego, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, taught a free ballet class there once a week. Bradley invited Copeland to attend classes at the small local ballet school, San Pedro Dance Center. However, Copeland initially declined the offer because her mother did not have a car, and her oldest sister Erica was working two jobs. Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro Dance Center when Cynthia Bradley began picking her up from school. Soon after she and her mother moved to a motel in Gardena, California
Gardena, California
Gardena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 58,829 at the 2010 census, up from 57,746 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Gardena is located at ....
they signed a management contract as well as a life-story contract, and Copeland moved in with Bradley. She spent the weekdays with the Bradleys near the coast and the weekends at home with her mother, a two-hour bus ride away. By the age of fourteen, Copeland was the winner of a national ballet contest and won her first solo
Solo (dance)
A solo dance is danced by an individual dancing alone, as opposed to couples dancing together but independently of others dancing at the same time, if any, and as opposed to groups of people dancing simultaneously in a coordinated manner. Solo dancers are usually the best dancers in a group or...
role.
The Bradleys introduced Copeland to books and videos about ballet. When she got to see Paloma Herrera
Paloma Herrera
Paloma Herrera , is a principal ballet dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.Ms. Herrera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and began studying ballet there at the age of seven with teacher Olga Ferri...
perform at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center . The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.The Pavilion has 3,197 seats spread over four tiers, with chandeliers, wide curving stairways and rich décor...
, Copeland began to idolize her as much as she did Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
. After three months of study Copeland was en pointe
En pointe
En pointe means "on the tip" and is a part of classical ballet technique, usually practised using specially reinforced shoes called pointe shoes or toe shoes. The technique developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and has evolved to enable dancers to dance on the...
. The media first noticed Copeland when she drew 2,000 patrons per show as she performed as Clara in the The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
after only eight months of study. A larger role in Don Quixote and a featured role in The Chocolate Nutcracker, an African American version of the tale that was narrated by Debbie Allen
Debbie Allen
Deborrah Kaye “Debbie” Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, television producer, and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities...
, soon followed.
When she was fifteen years old, Copeland won first place in the Los Angeles Music Center
Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
Spotlight Awards and subsequently began her studies with Diane Lauridsen of Torrance's South Bay Ballet at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. The competition was held at the Chandler Pavilion on March 24, 1998, and Copeland said it was the first time she ever battled nervousness. The winners received scholarships between $500 and $2500. Copeland's victory in the 10th annual contest among gifted high school students in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
secured her recognition by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
as the best young dancer in the Greater Los Angeles Area
Greater Los Angeles Area
The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...
.
Copeland studied at the San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
The San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
School after winning the Spotlight award. While training with Bradley she selected the workshop with the San Francisco Ballet over offers from the Joffrey Ballet
Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern...
, Dance Theater of Harlem and three other companies. As a student, Copeland had a 3.8/4.0 GPA through her junior year of high school.
Custody case
Copeland lived and trained with Cynthia and Patrick Bradley for nearly three years, ending in 1998. During that time she pursued independent studyIndependent study
Independent study is a form of education offered by many high schools, colleges, and other educational institutions around the world. It is sometimes referred to as directed study...
for tenth grade. After Copeland returned from her summer 1998 San Francisco Ballet experience, her mother informed her that she would be staying with her and not resuming her study with the Bradleys. Copeland was distraught with fear that she would not be able to dance. She had heard the term emancipation while in San Francisco; the procedure was common among young performers. The Bradleys introduced Copeland to Steven Bartell, a lawyer who explained the emancipation petition process. Copeland says she understood the process as a way to make everything better. The Bradleys encouraged her to be absent when the emancipation petition was delivered to her mother. Copeland ran away
Runaway youth
A runaway is a minor or a person under an arbitrary age, depending upon the local jurisdiction, who has left the home of his or her parent or legal guardian without permission, or has been thrown out by his or her parent and is considered by the local authorities to lack the capacity to live under...
from home for three days and stayed with a friend.
After her mother reported Copeland missing, she was told about the emancipation petition. Three days after running away, Copeland was taken to the police station by Bartell, who filed emancipation papers. Copeland's mother subsequently applied for a restraining order, which included the Bradleys' five-year old son who had been Copeland's roommate. The order was partly intended to preclude contact between the Bradleys and Copeland, but it did not have proper legal basis, since there had been no stalking
Stalking
Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...
and no harassment
Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...
.
In late 1998, a custody
Child custody
Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.Following ratification of the United...
controversy occurred involving Copeland. The case was highly publicized in the press (especially Los Angeles Times and Extra
Extra (TV series)
Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...
), starting in August and September 1998. Parts of the press coverage spilled over into op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
articles. In the case, which was heard in Torrance
Torrance, California
Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...
in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County
Superior Court of Los Angeles County
The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the Superior Court located in Los Angeles County. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States....
, DelaCerna claimed that the Bradleys had brainwashed Copeland into filing suit for emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
from her mother, and DelaCerna, who was represented by Gloria Allred
Gloria Allred
Gloria Rachel Allred is an American lawyer noted for taking high-profile and often controversial cases, particulary those involving the protection of women's rights.-Early life:...
, filed a series of restraining order
Restraining order
A restraining order or order of protection is a form of legal injunction that requires a party to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. A party that refuses to comply with an order faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
s against Bartell, the lawyer who filed the emancipation charges on behalf of her daughter. Allred claimed that the Bradleys had turned Copeland against her mother by belittling DelaCerna's intelligence. The Bradleys were not intimidated by the suits and said they were willing to enforce the management contract, which gave them authority and rights to twenty percent of Copeland's earnings until she became eighteen, via the legal system.
After DelaCerna stated that she would always make sure Copeland could dance, the emancipation papers and restraining orders were dropped. Even though she had dropped the temporary restraining order request, DelaCerna wanted the Bradleys out of her daughter's life. Later in 1998, Copeland, who claimed she did not even understand the term emancipation, withdrew the request after informing the judge that such charges no longer represented her wishes. Eventually, Copeland re-enrolled at San Pedro High School
San Pedro High School
San Pedro High School is a public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is located in the San Pedro portion of the city of Los Angeles, California. In 2003, the school celebrated its 100th Anniversary....
on pace to be a part of her original class of 2000 and began ballet study with Lauridsen Ballet Centre, although it was now restricted to afternoons in deference to her schooling. Afterward, all parties appeared on Leeza Gibbons
Leeza Gibbons
Leeza Kim Gibbons is an American talk show host. Gibbons is the host of her own radio show, Hollywood Confidential, part of the United Stations radio syndication company.-Early life:...
' Leeza
Leeza
Leeza is a daytime television talk show hosted by Leeza Gibbons. The show ran on NBC between 1994 and 2000, and was also shown on other stations in markets where the local NBC affiliate pre-empted it in favor of other programming...
show. In 2000, DelaCerna stated that Copeland's earnings from ballet were set aside in a savings account and only used as needed.
American Ballet Theatre
As of 2008, Copeland has been the only African-American woman in the dance company for her entire American Ballet Theatre career, nor is there a male African-American since the departure of Danny TidwellDanny Tidwell
Daniel Arnold Tidwell is best known for being the runner-up on Fox's third season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2007....
in 2005. In an international ballet community with a lack of diversity, she is a rare African-American ballerina, and although she has been shielded from several issues, she endures the difficulties of cultural isolation as the second African-American ABT soloist ballet dancer. Since she is often credited as the first African-American ABT soloist ballet dancer in the press, some describe her as the Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
of classical ballet. Copeland also feels that since the female dancer is the focus of the ballet, her role as a trail-blazing performer and role model has extra significance. She is included in the 2004 picture book
Picture book
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. The images in picture books use a range of media such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor and pencil.Two of the earliest books with something like the format picture books still retain now...
by former ABT dancer Rosalie O'Connor that is entitled Getting Closer: A Dancers Perspective (ISBN 0-8130-2768-3). Copeland's performances with American Ballet Theatre are sponsored by Susan Fales-Hill.
Early ABT career
Copeland auditioned for several dance programs in 1999, and each made her an offer to enroll in its summer program. Copeland performed with the ABT as part of its 1999 and 2000 Summer Intensive programs. During the summer of 1999, the topic of whether Copeland would stay if invited came up, and she responded affirmatively, although her mother insisted finishing high school was important. During that summer, she was told that she would likely be invited to stay after she graduated in 2000 and by the end of the summer she was asked to skip her senior year and join the studio company. Copeland returned to California for her senior year, even though the ABT arranged to pay for her performances, housing accommodations and academic arrangements.She studied at the Summer Intensive Program on full scholarship for both summers and was declared ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. In the 2000 Summer Intensive Program, she danced the role of Kitri in Don Quixote
Don Quixote (ballet)
Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
. Of the 150 dancers in the 2000 Summer Intensive Program, she was one of six selected to join the junior dance troupe. She joined the ABT Studio Company in September 2000, and became a member of its Corps de ballet
Corps de ballet
In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who are not soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers. A corps de ballet works as one, with synchronized movements and corresponding positioning on the stage...
in 2001. As part of the Studio Company, which is the ABT's second company, she performed a duet in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.
Corps de ballet
Early career reviews mentioned her as more radiant than higher ranking dancers. As a corps dancer she had the opportunity to dance alongside her longtime idol Paloma HerreraPaloma Herrera
Paloma Herrera , is a principal ballet dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.Ms. Herrera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and began studying ballet there at the age of seven with teacher Olga Ferri...
. Starting in 2003, she began to be favorably reviewed for her roles as a member of the corps in La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
and William Forsythe
William Forsythe (dancer)
William Forsythe is an American dancer and choreographer resident in Frankfurt am Main in Hessen. He is known internationally for his work with the Ballett Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company...
's workwithinwork. Recognition continued in 2004 for roles in ballets such as Raymonda
Raymonda
Raymonda is a ballet in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis, choreographed by Marius Petipa, with music by Alexander Glazunov, his opus 57. First presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on in St. Petersburg, Russia...
and workwithinwork, and the 2004 season is regarded as her breakthrough season. In 2005, her most notable performance was in George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's Tarantella
Tarantella (ballet)
Tarantella is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 67 , reconstructed and orchestrated by Hershy Kay...
. In 2006, she received a notable mention for her role in Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
, and she was acknowledged for her meticulous classical performance style in Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
. That year, she also returned to Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
to perform at Orange County Performing Arts Center
Orange County Performing Arts Center
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is a performing arts complex located in Costa Mesa, California, United States.The Center offers the world’s leading dance companies, Broadway shows, award-winning classical, jazz and cabaret artists, family entertainment, special events and year-round...
. Copeland's "old-style" performance continued to earn her praise until her promotion to soloist in 2007.
Soloist
Copeland was appointed soloist in August 2007, which was announced in July 2007. Standing at 5 in 2 in (1.57 m), she is one of the youngest ABT soloists, and she has been a standout among her peers. In the early fall 2007 New York City CenterNew York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
season, in which avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
ballets works were performed, she presented a Balanchine Ballo Della Regina
Ballo della Regina
Ballo della Regina is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine, set to music of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Don Carlos. Its premiere performance was on January 12, 1978, by the New York City Ballet at New York State Theater in Lincoln Center...
role. Her solo in this work was highly regarded although, as one of Balanchine's later works, Ballo Della Regina is not regarded as one of his best productions. Her performances of Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...
works in the same City Center season were recognized, and she was described as more sophisticated and contemporary as a soloist than she had been as a corps dancer. As a corps member she had been recognized for prior performances of Tharp's work. Her summer 2008 Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
House season performances in Don Quixote and Sleeping Beauty were well-received.
In 2008, Copeland won the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, which funds study with master teachers and trainers outside of the American Ballet Theatre. The two-year fellowships are in recognition of "young artists of extraordinary talent with the goal of providing them with additional resources in order to fully realise their potential". During the 2008–09 season, she received publicity for roles in Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...
's Baker's Dozen and Paul Taylor's Company B.
In March 2009, Copeland spent two days in Los Angeles filming a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
with Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, for the first single from his 2009 studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
Lotusflower
Lotusflower (album)
Lotusflow3r is the twenty-sixth studio album by American musician Prince, released March 24, 2009 on NPG Records. A triple album set, it contains two Prince albums, LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSºUND, as well as Elixer, the debut album of Prince protegée Bria Valente...
, which was a cover of the "Crimson and Clover
Crimson and Clover
"Crimson and Clover" is a 1968 song by American rock band Tommy James and the Shondells. Written by the duo of Tommy James and drummer Peter Lucia Jr., it was intended as a change in direction of the group's sound and composition....
". Prince caught her by surprise with a next-day invitation to participate in unchoreographed movements. She described his instructions as "Be you, feel the music, just move" and upon request for instruction "Keep doing what you’re doing". During the summer, her Annenberg Fellowship resulted in training for her performance in Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
The Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to an excerpt from Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act III, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky...
adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
"Pas de Deux". She also began taking acting lessons. That fall, she performed in the ABT's first trip to Beijing November 12 –15. The six-performance engagement was the first by an American ballet company at the new National Center for the Performing Arts.
In October 2010, she performed at the Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
to David Lang
David Lang (composer)
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
's music. During the New York City and New Jersey portions of Prince's Welcome 2 America
Welcome 2 America
The Welcome 2... is a concert tour by American recording artist, Prince. The tour began December 2010 in the United States. It has traveled to Europe and Canada in 2011. The tour marks the singer's first performances in North America in over six years. The show is composed of the singer performing...
tour, Copeland took a few nights off from her 2010 role in The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
at Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
and performed a pas de deux
Pas de deux
In ballet, a pas de deux is a duet in which ballet dancers perform the dance together. It usually consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations , and a coda.-Notable Pas de deux:...
en pointe
En pointe
En pointe means "on the tip" and is a part of classical ballet technique, usually practised using specially reinforced shoes called pointe shoes or toe shoes. The technique developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and has evolved to enable dancers to dance on the...
to "The Beautiful Ones
The Beautiful Ones
"The Beautiful Ones" is the third track on Prince and The Revolution's soundtrack album Purple Rain. Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince, the song was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by Peggy Mac and David Leonard in early September 1983."The Beautiful Ones" is a haunting...
" as the opening number at the Izod Center and Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
. Prince had previously invited her onstage at a concert in Nice, France. Copeland was also featured in T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
's ads for the BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
in 2010. In February 2011, in honor of Black History Month
Black History Month
Black History Month is an observance of the history of the African diaspora in a number of countries outside of Africa. Since 1976, it is observed annually in the United States and Canada in February, while in the United Kingdom it is observed in October...
, Copeland was selected by Essence
Essence (magazine)
Essence is a monthly magazine for African-American women between the ages of 18 and 49. The magazine covers fashion, lifestyle and beauty with an intimate girlfriend-to-girlfriend tone.-History:...
as one of its 37 Boundary-breaking black women in entertainment. That same month, she toured with Company B, which performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
in London. On April 13 2011, she performed alongside Prince on the Lopez Tonight
Lopez Tonight
Lopez Tonight was an American late-night television talk show hosted by comedian George Lopez. The hour-long program premiered on November 9, 2009, on cable network TBS. Lopez was the first Mexican American to host a late-night talk show on an English-language network in the United States. The...
show, dancing to the song "The Beautiful Ones." Her Summer 2011 ABT performances were part of a new Alexei Ratmansky
Alexei Ratmansky
Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky is a choreographer and former ballet dancer. He is artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre and the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Ratmansky trained under Pyotr Pestov and Anna Markeyeva at the Bolshoi Ballet School...
ballet as well as a reprisal of Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
pas de deux. In the Ratmansky piece, Copeland earned praise for her May and June Metropolitan Opera House performances: "Misty Copeland was a luminous, teasingly sensual milkmaid. I’ll never look at her the same way again," She performed Ratmansky to a Metropolitan Opera audience that included Black Swan
Black Swan (film)
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to...
star Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
. She reprised the role in July at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with a performance described as "sly". As a flower girl, she was described as glittering in Don Quixote
Don Quixote (ballet)
Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
. In August, she performed at the Vail International Dance Festival in the Gerald Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Colorado.
While aspiring to be a principal dancer
Principal dancer
A principal dancer is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company....
, Copeland has numerous goals as a dancer, in terms of leading roles. She aspires to perform lead roles in Giselle, Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
, Juliet
Juliet
Juliet is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. She is the daughter of old Capulet, head of the house of Capulet. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself....
in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
Romeo and Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It is one of the most enduringly popular ballets...
as well as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. In September 2011, she was featured in the Season 1, episode 5 of the Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
web series
Web series
A web series is a series of episodes released on the Internet or also by mobile or cellular phone, and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program is called an episode .While the popularity of web series is continuing to rise, the concept...
A Day in the Life.
External links
- Copeland archive at Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
- Copeland at American Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
- A Day In the Life With Misty Copeland
- Copeland's commercial for Blackberry BoldBlackBerry BoldThe BlackBerry Bold 9000 is a line of smartphones developed by Research in Motion. The family includes the 9000 , the 9700 , the 9650 and 9780, both of which were released in 2010, 9788 released in 2011 and the 9900/9930, the first touchscreen Bold, released in August 2011...
- "Crimson and Clover" video
- The Loop 21: Interview with Misty Copeland
- 1997 Copeland video