Dreams can come true, look at me babe I’m with you! Remember Gabrielle? What a hit that was back in the day. So today I woke up with the news that Misty Copeland made history: she was named First Black Female Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theater. Look at her! I would be honored to see her dance!
The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “Misty Copeland, the Missouri-born dancer who has become a forceful voice for diversity in ballet and a rare celebrity in that field, was named principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre on Tuesday — the first African-American ballerina to achieve that status in the company’s 75-year history.”
So dreams can come true but it takes hard work and you guessed it; personal branding! Lemme explain to you how she made history by making herself visible:
She went out there and:
1. performed in a music video with Prince
2. was featured in a hugely popular online ad for Under Armour sportswear
3. appeared as a guest host on the Fox show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’
4. and was a presenter at this year’s Tony awards
“We haven’t had a ballet dancer who has broken through to popular culture like this since Mikhail Baryshnikov,” said 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.”
But wait there is more!!
5. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine as one of the most influential figures of 2015
6. She wrote both a children’s book and a best-selling memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, in which she recounted the challenges she faced on the road to her hard-won perch in ballet — and which has been optioned for a movie
7. She also was the subject of a documentary at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival
This girl is on fire as Alicia Keys would say!
Hot hot hot is what it feels like in my house now so am going to enjoy the sunshine and have some fun today. Because it is Keti Koti day, the day slavery ended in Suriname so we are partying like it is 1863. See you at Museumplein my dears!
XO XO,
Nancy