Black History Is Now: How Misty Copeland Went From Different to Special
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Continuing our Black History Month series, ballet sensation Misty Copeland shares her journey to believing she was special.
As the first African American woman to be a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater in 2015, Misty Copeland made history. Now, she continues to shape the future by inspiring young dancers and sharing not just her story, but also her inspiration in her memoir “The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor, Raven Wilkinson.” Copeland joins host Kai Wright to talk about her upbringing, mentorship that shaped her and the future she envisions for Black ballerinas.
Companion listening for this episode:
Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art (12/19/2022)
What does a next-level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self.
“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.
We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Missy Copeland is a person that every black ballerina wanted to be. Still wants to be at this point |
| 0:08.6 | she's sort of the gold standard for the black ballerina. Missy Copeland's story is one that I think |
| 0:15.7 | all dancers with more specifically dancers of color can find inspiration from. She's a legacy |
| 0:22.2 | in the dance world. She is a trailblazer to all of the little black dancers who needed someone |
| 0:30.1 | and their life to give them inspiration and dance. Whenever I dance I feel like I can be myself, |
| 0:36.0 | I can express myself whenever I'm dancing I'm happy. I just love to dance. Dance to me means growth. |
| 0:45.2 | I've been dancing since the age of three and there's never too much you can learn. It's something |
| 0:51.0 | that you can never really perfect and it's something that you always work at and there's |
| 0:56.0 | continual development and inspiration. Her like a scene to me it's like looking in a mirror |
| 1:02.4 | and seeing myself there because when I talk to all of my friends and they have dancers that |
| 1:08.5 | they look up to it's mostly not people of color but when I think of Missy Copeland a dancer of color |
| 1:14.8 | I just think that's me. I think seeing someone who like me had a single mom was able to get |
| 1:20.4 | what they wanted and what they needed out of life without having to compromise who they were |
| 1:25.9 | that means the world to me. As it can be quoted in her book entitled Life in Motion this is for |
| 1:32.2 | the Little Brown Girls. It's notes from America I'm Kai Wright and those young people are students |
| 1:43.4 | at the Jones Haywood Dance School in Washington DC. It was founded in 1941 to educate Black |
| 1:49.8 | youth in classical ballet and as you heard Missy Copeland is a hero to those young ladies and |
| 1:56.4 | many others. In 2015 Copeland became the first African-American woman ever to be a principal dancer |
| 2:03.2 | at the American ballet theater. By that point she was already a sensation well beyond the dance |
| 2:08.7 | world. Her performances drew these huge crowds of new young audiences to this classical form. |
| 2:14.8 | She'd even been in a Prince video. |
| 2:20.8 | And this week we continue a series we're calling Black History Is Now by meeting Missy Copeland. |
... |
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