Who is Misty Copeland?
Misty Copeland was the first ever African American female principal dancer with the American Theatre Ballet.
How Misty Got Started:
Copeland first encountered the art of dance on her middle school's drill team, she caught the eye of her coach who reccomended that she study ballet based on her natural talent. She then attended classes at the local Boys and Girls Club and from there went to the San Pedro Ballet School. In 1998, at the age of 15, Copeland won first place in the ballet category of the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards. From there, she was accepted, with a full scholarship, into the summer intensive camp with the San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and from there the rest is history. ☺♫
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Misty's Outreach Work;
Misty has taken her past life experiences, coming from a low-income family and living most of her youth in a motel with her five other siblings, and used them as a motivation and fuel to give back to the community. Many of the projects include:
- "Project Plié, where Copeland works with the Boys and Girls Club of America initiative to help promote diversity and bring ballet closer to kids from underrespresented communities, who usually wouldn't have an oppourtunity to take part.
- Mindleaps, Misty visited Mindleaps Rwanda in 2015 to launch the innaugural girl's program and to present the "Misty Copeland Scholarship".
- Misty also offered a masterclass in San Pedro, which raised $75,000 for the ballet outreach program DancEd Steps Up, which provides free, multi-week dance lesson series to children in public schools throughout LA lacking art education.
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