Misty Copeland on ballet, racism, and her historic career | BBC News

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Misty Copeland on ballet, racism, and her historic career | BBC News


The BBC’s Katty Kay travels to New York City to meet Misty Copeland, the iconic ballerina who became the first African-American woman to achieve the role of Principal Dancer at the American Ballet Theatre.

They spoke on stage at Lincoln Center about Copeland’s status as a trailblazer, how she copes with injuries and setbacks, racism, and…

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42 Comments

  1. One gets the impression the interviewer Katty Kay tries to discourage Misty Copeland. I don`t like this style of talking which one finds too often between women and in this case was initiated and enforced by a professional interviewer! And whoever knows only a tiny bit of ballet knows that pain is a day to day reality for a dancer and should not be the topic of an interview that is described with the topics ballet, racism and an accomplished ballet dancer`s career !

  2. What's so historic about her? There were plenty of Black ballet dancers before her and she was not a good dancer. Mediocare, barely making it. And please it is racism to blame it on her supposedly "black" body composition. There is no such thing, Black girls are totally the same as the rest of the world.

  3. Misty Copeland is the best! Shes beautiful and at the top performer.
    White supremacy/racism is not about superiority. Its about gaslighting, greed, intimidation, violence, bullying, insecurity and hatred.

  4. Jesus Christ, this puff piece is so cringeworthy, I was embarassed by the fake hug tone of it…. the weird ackward fake laughs…. just shows how performative and fake American culture is…

    It also demonstrates how sensitive americans are to human interest stories, to celebrity culture and the cliche of the underdog. Basically the whole piece is "how unlucky you were, how much you suffered, you are black, boo-hoo-hoo, how racist everyone is, how amazing you are, the first principal black dancer.

    Americans like to create symbols, irrespective of talent and actual ability. They feed on political correctness and code words like "inclusion", "journey", "artistry", instead of "ability"

  5. But Ballet dancers are not usually muscular. There was a documentary in Vaganova where they audition children, and they said the same thing to the child that was obviously more athletic and muscular than the rest. So it is not racist, traditionally ballet does have a body type and that is just that. I think it's very important not to take things personally or read things more than it is. Because Japanese, Chinese is also one in the entire company but we never say it's racism.

  6. Love misty! The interviewers audio is pretty bad, did they botch her mic? Misty's words are so clear and enunciated. She looks so much better next to the interviewer. Maybe that's what they were going for?

  7. WW Katty Kay doing those dehumanizing interviews where people of color are reminded and ask about the struggles instead of the triumphs.

  8. Racism? 😂.
    Positive discrimination more like! Plenty of superior dancers to Misty, regardless of their skin colour. Her physique and injury rate is indicative of incorrect technique

  9. “When Misty was first promoted to the rank of soloist, she boasted to the media that she was the first black female soloist at American Ballet Theatre. She told Jim Farber at the LA Daily News “They’ve never had a black woman make it past the corps.” When Farber spoke to Kevin McKenzie [ABT’s artistic director at the time] for the same article, McKenzie didn’t correct the misinformation that Misty was promoting. He didn’t mention any of the black women soloists who came before Misty and helped to open the door for her: Anne Benna Sims, Nora Kimball, or Shelley Washington. Misty writes about getting her soloist contract: “If this could open doors for black women in ballet, that would mean the world to me” but she pays no homage to the ABT black soloists who came before her and helped open the doors for her. She doesn’t even mention their names. It’s as though she begrudges those who came before her and is massaging her message while hoping to make people think of her as the original trailblazer, the real game-changer, which she is not. Despite believing and promoting herself as the first black female soloist when she got her contract, her now-published memory of those events has been carefully scrubbed in the memoir to say she recalls thinking at the time how great it was going to be to be the first black female soloist in twenty years – not necessarily the first. Why didn't she tell the truth and credit those who came before her?

    Throughout this memoir, Misty claims time and time again that she has encountered racism in ballet but offers not a shred of evidence. She attributes her internal disarray, insecurities, and her failures to win whatever she desired to others’ racial prejudices. It is all such a crock of self-obsessed self-victimization.”

    https://haglundsheel.typepad.com/haglunds_heel/2014/03/misty-copeland-life-in-motion-an-unlikely-ballerina.html

  10. Every interview with Misty Copeland always centers on the hardships of being a black ballerina in the white world of ballet. She is a principal dancer because of her intelligence, talent, and skills. She has so much more to present going forward in her future. Continued success forever.