GBN’s Daily Drop: Misty Copeland, 1st African American Principal Dancer in American Ballet Theatre History (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is about Misty Copeland, the first African American principal dancer in the elite American Ballet Theatre‘s 75-year history, based on the Tuesday, March 15 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Misty Copeland changed the face of ballet… with her feet. Raised in San Pedro, California, Copeland began taking ballet lessons at her local Boys & Girls Club at the “late” age of thirteen. By fifteen she was dancing professionally.

Misty joined American Ballet Theatre in April 2001 and made history in 2014 as the first Black woman to perform the lead role of Odette/Odile in ABT’s Swan Lake. In June 2015, Misty was promoted to principal dancer, the first African American woman to hold the position in the company’s 75-year history.To learn more about Misty Copeland, check out her 2014 New York Times best-selling memoir Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, 2017’s Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You, and 2021’s Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy, an illustrated nonfiction collection in which Copeland celebrates dancers of color who came before her, the odds they faced, and how they have influenced her on and off the stage.

Copeland has also authored the picture books Firebird from 2014 and 2015’s Bunheads. You can also check out her official website, mistycopeland.com, her biography and performance photos on the American Ballet Theatre site, abt.com, and her online MasterClass on Ballet Technique and Artistry at masterclass.com.

Also worth checking out is the WBUR CitySpace-hosted conversation Tell Me More! Misty Copeland And The Ballerinas Of The 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy from 2021 on YouTube and the 2015 documentary A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson George and available to rent or buy on Amazon or AppleTV.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

Music from Swan Lake composed by Tchaikovsky was used in today’s episode under Public Domain license.

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For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Additional sources:

• https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/10/misty-copeland-black-ballerinas-interview
• https://pix11.com/news/black-history-month/black-ballerinas-misty-copeland-new-book-profiles-unsung-dance-heroines/amp/
• https://www.abt.org/people/misty-copeland/
• https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/05/misty-copeland-principal-american-ballet-theatre-life-in-motion
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Misty-Copeland
• https://www.masterclass.com/articles/misty-copeland

(paid links)