Legendary ballerina Misty Copeland is no stranger to the stage in Abu Dhabi. The first time she came to the Emeriti capital in 2014, she was as a soloist dancer in a principal role.
“It was really a big deal – as a Black woman – for American Ballet Theatre to come here and to be diving into that point in my career as an older ballerina,” Copeland recalled. Little did she know that the following year she would make history as ABT’s first Black female principal dancer in the company’s 75-year history.
On Wednesday, she returned to the stage in Abu Dhabi, this time as speaker with a new list of titles – author, entrepreneur, mother, philanthropist and mentor – at the Know Your Value and Forbes’ second annual 30/50 Summit.
She sat down with summit vice-chair Huma Abedin to share her experiences as a woman of color in classical ballet, starting a foundation to increase diversity in the arts and the inspiration behind several of the bestselling books she had written.
The summit itself brought women from 50 countries together, including honorees from the Forbes “30 under 30” and “50 Over 50” lists, to launch mentorship opportunities, collaborate and innovate on the most pressing women’s rights challenges.
While Copeland came from humble beginnings, she credited her meteoric rise in ballet to her community of supporters. “I’ve had such an incredible kitchen cabinet of mentors in my life that have prepared me for being in this position,” she told Abedin. “So it’s hard for me to look at this thing as me on my own accomplishing this, it has been generations and generations of the work that’s been done … picking away at the problems of equity and diversity in classical dance.”
And she said that generational effort has impacted everything she approaches, starting with her writing. Copland has authored multiple bestselling books, including the 2022 memoir, “The Wind at My Back,” chronicling the life of Raven Wilkinson, the first Black ballerina to dance with a major ballet company.
“I found out she lived a block away from me on the Upper West Side of New York City, which was unbelievable,” Copeland said. “We became really close friends, and I don’t think that I would have had the path that I have had she not come into my life and be this incredible beacon of light.”
When Copeland first performed the lead in Swan Lake at Lincoln Center, it was Wilkinson who congratulated her on stage at the Metropolitan Opera. “…As a black woman, when you’re told for generations and generations, that is not a role for you – like being in the white swan is not something that a black woman can be – and then to be able to perform that role and have Raven walk onto the stage and hand me my flowers … it was just this incredible, full circle moment.”
In the years since, Copeland has committed to carrying on the legacies of women like Wilkinson by bringing more diversity and inclusion to the ballet world.
In 2021, she started the Misty Copeland Foundation, a nonprofit focused on making classical ballet – and the arts – more accessible to children of color through high-quality afterschool programs held in local Boys & Girls Clubs and similar child-serving sites.
“I grew up in a single parent home – one of six children – and the safest place for us to be while my mother was working many jobs was at our community center … and that’s where I actually discovered ballet – on a basketball court when I was 13 years old,” Copeland told Abedin.
“There was a lot of abuse of my household – we didn’t often have a home – I was actually living in a motel when I was 13 and discovered ballet,” she recalled. “That space became so sacred to me and it was a place where I could express myself [and] I started to develop the tools that I wasn’t getting in school, not everyone thrives in that environment and learns in the same way.”
Copeland’s hope for the foundation is that children of color gain meaningful exposure to the arts as a safe space and that it awakens something within them. “So, it’s not just about coming into this European white art form, but how can we meet these children where they are so right now.”
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