Misty Copeland – Redefining Strength, the Feminine and the Art of Ballet

By Shannon M. Houston

“Those of us who are outside the world of ballet tend to think of it as a very old art form: Louis XIII wrote ballets, and Louis XIV danced in forty productions. But ballet, like so many venerable and beautiful things, has been too easily co-opted into the fallacy of our assumption that its worth today is best measured by fidelity to its original form. In the ballet of the French aristocracy, different body types were assigned to different character types—tall people played nobles, shorter people played comic roles—and, in a dance, the choreography emphasized the king’s literal superiority over the court. After the French Revolution, those norms changed, and the ballet we now think of as classical is, in large part, derived from a radical reaction against original ideals.”

An Unlikely Ballerina “The Rise of Misty Copeland”, The NewYorker.com

Misty Copeland came to ballet late at the age of thirteen, and went on to make history by becoming a soloist at American Ballet Theater only a few short years later. She is only the second African American soloist in ABT’s history and the first in more than two decades.  Performing in a variety of classical and contemporary ballets, Misty’s most important part to date is the title role in The Firebird. Misty’s passion is giving back, especially by mentoring children. In 1865, Sojourner Truth asked a crowd of people a bold, but rhetorical question: “Ain’t I a woman?” Clearly she was, but her race and social standing as a former slave problematized America’s understanding of her femininity and womanhood. Although she was proud of all her facets, she lived in a society that did not embrace, nor encourage her to be all of these things—strong, black, empowered, and woman. At first glance, it may seem that a former slave and an acclaimed ballet dancer would have nothing in common. But as Misty Copeland describes her journey to the American Ballet Theater, it’s clear that in 2015, trailblazers like herself are still working against a system that rigidly defines and limits both the attributes of a woman, and the capabilities of the black and underprivileged. Fighting for a place in classical ballet perhaps does not seem comparable to fighting for the emancipation of a people, or for women’s rights. But these fights all require a society to redefine itself.

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