{"id":49197,"date":"2016-09-25T16:47:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T16:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=49197"},"modified":"2016-09-25T16:48:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T16:48:56","slug":"renowned-ballerina-misty-copeland-sends-an-inspiring-message-to-girls-of-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=49197","title":{"rendered":"Renowned ballerina Misty Copeland sends an inspiring message to girls of Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/21\/misty-copeland-body-image-message\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Renowned ballerina Misty Copeland sends an inspiring message to girls of Colorado<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Denver Post<\/a><br \/>\nDenver, Colorado<br \/>\n2016-09-21<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:mhughes@denverpost.com\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Molly Hughes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>She overcame difficult childhood to become first African-American female principal dancer with the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/American_Ballet_Theatre\" target=\"_blank\">American Ballet Theatre<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/launch.newsinc.com\/?type=VideoPlayer\/Single&amp;widgetId=1&amp;trackingGroup=69016&amp;siteSection=denverpost&amp;videoId=31423334&amp;autoPlay=false\" width=\"590\" height=\"332\" frameborder=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>American dancer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Misty_Copeland\" target=\"_blank\">Misty Copeland<\/a> knows about overcoming the odds and pushing through adversity to achieve a dream.<\/p>\n<p>As the first African American female to be appointed as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Principal_dancer\" target=\"_blank\">Principal Dancer<\/a> with the prestigious <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/American_Ballet_Theatre\" target=\"_blank\">American Ballet Theatre<\/a>, Copeland knows more than a little bit about breaking out of the life she was given, to create the life she wanted. With that story to tell, it\u2019s no surprise the 34-year-old was invited to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Denver\" target=\"_blank\">Denver<\/a> as a special guest of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wfco.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado Women\u2019s Foundation<\/a> annual luncheon, an event sponsored by\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpostcommunity.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Denver Post Community Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The foundation\u2019s goal is to create systemic change for women and girls in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Colorado\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado<\/a>, empowering them to overcome stereotypes,\u00a0tackle math, science and technology in school, achieve financial independence and reach their full potential.<\/p>\n<p>Copeland\u2019s story seems to align with that message. Her seemingly fairy tale adult life in the spotlight bears little to no resemblance to her humble beginnings&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<strong>Hughes<\/strong>: Is there any part of you that is bothered by the fact that the title is first African-American principal dancer in the ballet company?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Copeland<\/strong>: No. I think that this is something that I\u2019ve had to accept and own, and I\u2019m so OK with that. You know, this is a huge deal and for people to kind of take away that title just because I\u2019ve reached this point \u2014 like it doesn\u2019t make any sense. It is a big deal, and it doesn\u2019t erase the history of the lack of diversity in classical ballet just because me as an individual \u2014 one person \u2014 has reached this point. So whenever people say, \u201cYou know, you\u2019re here. Like, why do you have to talk about race? Why is every article about you being African-American. It has to be said. That message has to continue and I hope it does. When I\u2019m retired in that it will continue to spark change&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire interview <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/21\/misty-copeland-body-image-message\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renowned ballerina Misty Copeland sends an inspiring message to girls of Colorado The Denver Post Denver, Colorado 2016-09-21 Molly Hughes She overcame difficult childhood to become first African-American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre American dancer Misty Copeland knows about overcoming the odds and pushing through adversity to achieve a dream. As the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,13743,8,20,842],"tags":[19921,5510,6725,12159,12161,19922,25033,12160],"class_list":["post-49197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-videos","tag-ballet","tag-colorado","tag-dance","tag-denver","tag-denver-post","tag-misty-copeland","tag-molly-hughes","tag-the-denver-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49198,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49197\/revisions\/49198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}