Breaking through the Glass Ceiling of the Ballet World

“I think there has to be change happening. If there isn’t change, how can the art form continue to grow?” -Misty Copeland.

When most prima ballerinas talk about their journey toward the top, it usually begins at the young age of four or five, training every day at a ballet academy and then entering a ballet company after high school. However, this was not the case for American Ballet Theatre’s Misty Copeland. Her journey is full of struggles, rejection, and opposition that she continues to face today, but through these obstacles she has become a true vehicle for change not just within her field of ballet, but for all African American women in the United States.

In 2015, Misty Copeland became the first African American ballerina to ever become promoted to prima ballerina in American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) 75-year history. This has been seen as an extraordinary feat for her as both a ballerina and an African American woman. Copeland was not introduced to ballet until the age of 13, which is considered very late for a professional ballerina. However, within only three months of starting ballet, she began dancing en pointe and became a very talented dancer, very quickly.

As a young teen dancer, Copeland won several awards for being an outstanding young dancer and in 2000, she was invited to become a part of ABT’s Studio Company. From there, she was promoted to its corps de ballet in 2001, a soloist in 2007, and finally the prima ballerina in 2015. She has become a very successful ballerina with ABT and dances with a beauty and grace that many young dancers, including myself, look up to. As someone who loves to do ballet, I will watch YouTube videos of her performing and just be in awe of her strength and talent. Her dancing is a work of art unique to herself, and it’s mesmerizing to watch.

However, her journey has been riddled with obstacles, with two standing out from all the rest. Those being her race and her body type. The field of ballet has created this expectation of what a ballerina should look like. The experts in this domain such as artistic directors of ballet companies and choreographers have this image in their head of what kind of dancer they want to hire. The “ideal body” for a ballerina is slim with a long neck, a short to medium length torso, a small bust, long slim legs with complimentary long arms, and a high instep. The ballet world expects ballerinas to have small thighs while at the same time having enough muscle and strength to dance en pointe and hold their legs up for extended periods of time. It seems pretty counterintuitive to me. This expectation is one of the huge things that Copeland has had to overcome on her journey. Copeland has a very athletic body, which isn’t typical of a prima ballerina. She has strong and pronounced leg muscles and a larger bust which can ruin the “aesthetic” that ballet companies are aiming for. Plus, there is the color of her skin. In ballet companies all throughout the world, there isn’t a lot of diversity among the dancers. Throughout her dance career, Copeland has been asked to pancake her skin lighter so she would blend in more with all of the other ballerinas. Of course, she did not want to do that. While she still faces opposition due to her skin color and body type to this day, she has shown that it doesn’t matter what you look like. She has risen above and beyond any expectations of a “perfect dancer” and has been a role model for dancers and people alike.

In essence, Misty Copeland has broken through the glass ceiling of ballet. She has become an inspiration for ballerinas and African American girls everywhere. Her success has broken barriers not just in the domain of ballet, but on issues of race and body image across all domains. Copeland is a true example of how hard work, dedication, and passion can help any creative overcome struggles to create a new and inspiring product.

“Being African American has definitely been a huge obstacle for me, but it’s also allowed me to have this fire inside of me that I don’t know I would have or have had if I weren’t in this field” - Misty Copeland, Time interview with Barack Obama

Also, you should watch this interview with Misty Copeland and Barack Obama. It's really inspiring, and it delves into the struggles, specifically race struggles, that both of these people have faced in their respective domains.

Sources: https://mistycopeland.com/about-2/ https://dancemagazine.com.au/2011/07/the-ideal-ballet-body/#:~:text=In%20reality%2C%20the%20ideal%20physique,by%20the%20ballet%20companies%20hiring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMwS6XA-PAg Lecture 3 Cognitive Mechanisms; Smith and Ward, "Cognition and the Creation of Ideas"