US ballet's first lead dancer 'of color'

Misty Copeland, the Missouri-born ballerina who's become a forceful voice for diversity in ballet and achieved a rare celebrity that far transcends dance, was named principal dancer at American Ballet Theater on Tuesday - the first African-American woman to reach that status in the company's 75-year history.

Copeland, 32, held back tears as she spoke about her promotion, which she said was a lifetime dream, but such a difficult one to attain that she never really thought it would happen.

"It hasn't been overnight," she said at a hastily arranged news conference - a testament to her unusual fame. "It's been 14 years of extremely hard work. ... I'm just so extremely honored to be an African-American and to be in this position."

Copeland adds that she hoped her ascension to the very top ranks of ballet would inspire other young dancers of color - "all the little girls" - to stick to their own dreams.

"So many young dancers of color stop dancing at an early age because they just don't think there will be a career path for them," she says. "I hope that will change."

She spoke of her own doubts when she joined the ABT ballet corps at age 19.

"I had moments of doubting myself and wanting to quit, because I didn't know if there would be a future for an African-American woman at that level," she says.

The company announced the promotion six days after Copeland made her New York debut in the role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, one of the most important roles in a ballerina's repertoire. The emotional performance ended with Copeland being greeted onstage by trailblazing black ballerinas of earlier generations.

Copeland has become increasingly famous over the past several years, achieving a pop culture status that's extremely rare for a ballet dancer.

"We haven't had a ballet dancer who has broken through to popular culture like this since Mikhail Baryshnikov," says Wendy Perron, an author and the former editor of Dance Magazine.

"And she's going to bring more attention from that world to ballet. We've waited a long time for this."

Copeland appeared on the cover of Time magazine as one of the most influential figures of 2015, and wrote both a children's book, Firebird, and a best-selling memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, which has been optioned for a movie.

Many who attended Copeland's historic Swan Lake performance noted what a diverse audience Copeland had drawn to the Metropolitan Opera House, where ABT performs its spring season. The crowd was filled with young black girls in their party dresses.

Damian Woetzel, former principal dancer for New York City Ballet and now the director of the Vail International Dance Festival, calls Copeland's rise "groundbreaking".

"In the racially underrepresented world of ballet, Misty has already had an historic impact," Woetzel says.

"Now, as a groundbreaking principal dancer, she will continue to inspire and make possible much-needed changes for our field and for the arts in America."