Misty Copeland- My Example

I’m a bit disappointed because I'm away from home and I won’t be able to see the Pennsylvania Ballet’s opening season’s performance of Ratmansky and Balanchine ,at the Academy of Music. on October 20-23, 2011.   But, of course, you will attend.  

It seems like a lifetime that I have had a relationship with this ballet company.  I almost feel like this company is family because I have attended so many performances and because I have become attached to many of its dancers like Jermel Johnson and Heidi Cruz; both of whom are African-American.  Though Ms. Cruz is no longer with the Pennsylvania Ballet, it was she who pulled me on stage and allowed me to imagine, by her example, I could do the same and love this dance medium as my own.  The examples of people of color in the ballet world are minimal and this why I am so excited about Misty Copeland, who is the first African-American soloist for the American Ballet Theatre, in New York.  Her example will get lots of girls and boys dancing and make me feel even more confident that ballet belongs to me, too and it’s an art form-when I get my bucks-I need to support.

Here is your chance to get to know Misty.