If there's one industry that has been led by a single ethnicity it's classic ballet, as for decades it has been women from Western Europe and France leading the top best dancers in the world, but one incredibly talented African-American woman has finally changed the course of history as dancer Misty Copeland is named the American Ballet Theater's first black principal dancer.
Over the past few months, dancer Misty Copeland has become the most famous woman in the ballet world, with a Time Magazine cover and getting profiled by "60 Minutes," as she took on some of the biggest roles in theater - but it wasn't until this week that she became a principal dancer.
According to The Associated Press, dancer Misty Copeland became the ABT's principal dancer barely six days after her New York debut in one of the most coveted roles in ballet, "Swan Lake," most famous to mainstream audiences as the basis for Natalie Portman's Oscar-turning role in "Black Swan."
@geneschiavone photography @alexhammoudi #RomeoAndJuliet @abtofficial pic.twitter.com/rm28DPDtF8
— Misty Copeland (@mistyonpointe) June 18, 2015
BBC reports that dancer Misty Copeland is possibly the most famous ballet dancer in the world right now, after appearing in TV spots for major brands such as Diet Dr Pepper, and had already made giant steps for diversity in ballet before she was named a principal dancer, as it's said nobody in the art had "broken through to popular culture" the way the 32 year-old has.
Dancer Misty Copeland was born in Kansas City, but she was raised in California for the better part of her life, specifically in San Pedro, where she began training for ballet relatively late in life, at 13, then studying at the Lauridsen Ballet Center, San Francisco Ballet School and given a full scholarship to attend the summer intensive American Ballet Theater, officially joining the company in 2001.
According to The New York Times, while fans of dancer Misty Copeland (who is a social media queen in her own right) have showered her with support, the fact is that her late appointment as principal dancer has risen red flags in the media over the vast underrepresentation of multiple ethnicities in ballet with only one African-American principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater's 75-year history.
