Dancer Misty Copeland’s graceful steps are halted by the pandemic

Misty Copeland:

I have been having these conversations very openly for 20 years of my career with American Ballet Theatre, and this is the first time that I feel a shift in an authentic interest in what I’m saying, and what my colleagues are saying, and what’s happening in the world.

That, to me, is the first step, that it’s not just about creating a diversity initiative and plastering my face on it and saying that progress is being made. I think that there just needs to be acknowledgement of the fact that so many dancers of color are not given equal opportunity, or are not given opportunity at all, that there are so many negative things that we have held onto from the past, because we have never had to address it.

The ballet world can so easily exist in this bubble, where the spotlight is not on them. And now I think that everything is being exposed in so many different fields.