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Once I became a professional, maybe 19 or 20, I really started to try to figure out who I was, as a woman and as an individual.

Misty Copeland

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Misty Copeland
Age: 42
Born: 1982
Born: September 10
Actor
Author
Ballet Dancer
Dancer
Kansas City
Missouri
Misty Danielle Copeland
Woman
Individual
Trying
Professional
Really
Figure
Became
Figures
Started
Maybe

More quotes by Misty Copeland

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Without my mentors there is no Misty.
Misty Copeland
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I absolutely love what I do, and I want to dance for as long as I can and feel good about what I am putting out there on the stage.
Misty Copeland
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I think anything that affects me in my personal life is going to help me be a better artist on stage.
Misty Copeland
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I know that I'll forever be involved in ballet. This is where my life was meant to be, and I don't see myself straying completely away, ever.
Misty Copeland
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I try to consider people's perspectives and not just my own.
Misty Copeland
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I don't think every African-American or Latino have the same body type, but, yes, that's been one of the excuses ... saying that African-Americans are too muscular or just aren't lean enough. Usually they say, Oh, they have flat feet so they just don't have the flexibility that it takes to create the line in a point shoe.
Misty Copeland
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I will never reach perfection.
Misty Copeland
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Ballet found me. I was discovered by a teacher in middle school. I always danced, my whole life. I never had any training, never was exposed to seeing dance, but I always had something inside of me.
Misty Copeland
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But I think the more you eat healthy clean foods the more you create them.
Misty Copeland
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My first ballet class was on a basketball court. I'm in my gym clothes and my socks trying to do this thing called ballet.
Misty Copeland
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I haven’t come from the typical path or background of someone who would make it to this level as a ballerina. When it came to my childhood-growing up in a single-parent home, often struggling financially-my mother definitely instilled in me and my siblings this strength, this will, to just continue to survive and succeed.
Misty Copeland
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A lot of people think, Oh I'm going to eat whatever I want and then go to the gym. And I've definitely been one of those people and it just doesn't give me the results that I need to have the physique of a ballerina.
Misty Copeland
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I had no idea what I was walking into, and the years and years of hard work it would take. I felt like an outsider and like it was never going to happen. But even if I would have known, I think I still would have done it. Dancers are perfectionists, and that's what keeps us going and growing.
Misty Copeland
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When people meet me in person, they're usually surprised at how petite I am because there's just [an] idea that because I'm black I just look a certain way.
Misty Copeland
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Something happens when you feel that energy and excitement from the audience. And you do, I don't know, four pirouettes. You jump higher than you ever have. And it's just this really magical thing that happens in those moments.
Misty Copeland
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The fact that I was African American was never addressed, and that allowed me to just be a student, like anyone else. I was not aware of how rare it was to be an African American, how rare it was to have four years of training under my belt, and how, even though I could imitate people and fake it, unprepared I was to become a professional.
Misty Copeland
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I'm a classical ballet dancer, and at the end of the day I want to be with American Ballet Theater, performing classical ballets.
Misty Copeland
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I think I always felt a connection to music and to movement. Growing up, I was surrounded by R&B and Hip-Hop, and the closest thing I could find to dance was gymnastics which I watched on TV.
Misty Copeland
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I learned how to communicate and articulate myself from ballet. It's just insane to me, when they don't think of that as a part of our education.
Misty Copeland
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I'm a pescatarian, so I don't eat red meat or pork. So my dinners usually consist of seafood in some way. And maybe cookies after!
Misty Copeland