Lily Fleming
Misty Copeland shares stories about her childhood and her start in ballet with a crowd of Drake students and community members in the Knapp Center.
In the history of ballet, the reality of a Black woman being a principal dancer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre went unwritten for the company’s 75 year history. Misty Copeland made history when she seized that role in 2015, and she embraced it at the 46th Annual Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship at 7 p.m. on April 2, detailing her experiences of adversity, advocacy for the arts, diversity and writing her own narrative.
Compared to some of Copeland’s colleagues in the professional dance community, she did not have early exposure to ballet. It wasn’t until roughly age 13 that music and Mariah Carey inspired her to spontaneously audition for captain of her middle school drill team. From there, her coach saw her potential and encouraged Copeland to try free ballet at the Boys and Girls Club she attended since she was 7.
Preceding the lecture, Copeland returned to her roots at the Gregory and Suzie Glazer Burt Boys and Girls Club, a place that she said felt like a real home in a chaotic upbringing with lots of moving and often being houseless, living in motels or homes of people she didn’t know. She spoke with community members and students of the club in a Q&A moderated by senior Eva Kellen.
“We took ballet classes on the basketball court in a room just like this,” Copeland said during the Q&A. “And it was there that [the instructor] recognized talent in me, and she said that she thought I was a prodigy. I didn’t know what that meant, but I wanted to keep dancing. It was the first time I found something that felt like it was mine.”
During the Q&A discussion, Copeland detailed to the audience how dance became an escape, a safe place of community for her that helped her gain confidence as an intensely shy child.
“I grew in leaps and bounds,” Copeland said. “My grades improved, and I was happier in general. I went places I never imagined that [dance] would have taken me. I only trained for four years in the classical ballet technique before I would move to New York City and become a professional dancer with American Ballet Theater.”
Addressing the many children in the audience, she described how she would offer her younger self kindness and grace.
“I would say to you, to be patient and enjoy the journey no matter what it is you choose to do, and know that you have a lot of support around you, especially here at the club,” she said.
The 46th installment of the annual lecture series kicked off in the Knapp Center with opening remarks from Dr. Kelly Bruhn, the chair of the Distinguished Lectureship Committee. Bruhn expressed gratitude to the Bucksbaum family for establishing this series and gave introductions for key speakers: Copeland, the CEO of Ballet Des Moines Blaire Massa and the president of Bravo Greater Des Moines, a nonprofit that funds and supports the arts, Sally Dix.
Massa touched on the major theme of valuing the arts in her remarks, providing statistics from Americans for the Arts that report young people with access to the arts are five times less likely to drop out of high school, twice as likely to graduate from college and 78% more likely to vote.
“The arts, and dance in particular, transcend language, background and circumstance,” Massa said. “Dance connects and speaks to us fundamentally as humans, helping us find our voices, our creativity and our confidence.”
Massa explained how Copeland’s work goes beyond an unending list of accomplishments and exceptional talent as an artist. She also serves communities as a cultural icon who collaborates in a variety of mediums, with charitable organizations like the Boys and Girls Club and her nonprofit foundation that seeks to bring greater diversity, equity and inclusion to dance and ballet.
“I founded the Misty Copeland Foundation, I started a production company and made a film, I had a baby, I wrote three books,” Copeland said. “So I’m trying to find as many mediums as possible to bring dance to as many people as possible and let them feel that this is a space they belong in.”
Bruhn was pleased with the audience’s excitement in welcoming Copeland to the Knapp Center and expressed enthusiasm for Copeland’s projects, which she said seek to tell stories and uplift in more ways than dance.
“That’s really inspirational to me, to think about how we might contribute and help others,” Bruhn said. “I’m really, really thrilled that she was able to join us on campus, and I would love to see all the things that are going to happen with the folks in the audience and the inspiration she’s created today.”
Tom Smull, a longtime supporter of Ballet Des Moines and an attendee at the event, emphasized the his love for Copeland’s story and her character.
“She is so down to earth and amazing and has accomplished so much coming from such a hard upbringing that it was just fascinating,” Smull said.
Copeland spoke on the responsibility she feels being representation for aspiring artists and athletes of color and to reach people who look like her during the lecture.
“I was doing a lot of [community] work and I wanted to get [people] in the theater and see that they belonged in that space too,” Copeland said. “And that night, the house was sold out. I remember it was full of Black and brown people and little young people, which is not often what you get when you come to see classical ballet or opera. But I remember, I’ll never forget … the line was wrapped around the fountain and around the corner and down Broadway.”
She said the diversity of her identity encapsulates the beauty of her individuality. With more diversity, variety and complexity in the artists who take the stage, so much more strength and beauty is brought to the art form Copeland said.
“Of course, I want change and I want more diversity in rooms,” Copeland said. “But if you are the only in a room, the only woman in a room, the only person with a disability in a room, that’s your power.”