{"id":53896,"date":"2017-05-14T18:47:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T18:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53896"},"modified":"2017-05-14T18:47:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T18:47:22","slug":"misty-copeland-a-ballerina-with-real-acting-chops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53896","title":{"rendered":"Misty Copeland, a Ballerina With Real Acting Chops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Misty Copeland, a Ballerina With Real Acting Chops<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2017-05-09<\/p>\n

Gia Kourlas<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nAs Misty Copeland<\/a> gets older, she seeks even more depth in her acting.
\nCredit Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times <\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Misty Copeland <\/a>isn\u2019t one of those principals who step onstage a few times a season. She dances. A lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy how I took jumping for granted all these years,\u201d Ms. Copeland, 34, said as she stretched out on the floor between rehearsals at American Ballet Theater\u2019s<\/a> studios. Stella Abrera<\/a>, a fellow principal, nodded in agreement. \u201cWhat did you just do?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cKitri,\u201d Ms. Copeland replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cOuch,\u201d Ms. Abrera said.<\/p>\n

This season \u2014 Ms. Copeland\u2019s second year as a principal \u2014 is a killer that includes her debut as Kitri in \u201cDon Quixote<\/a>\u201d on Tuesday, May 16, and her New York<\/a> debut as Giselle on May 26. As the company\u2019s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie<\/a>, put it, it\u2019s symbolic because \u201cshe\u2019s taking the mantle of the classics on.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…During a rehearsal the night before a performance in Washington<\/a> earlier this year, Ms. Copeland described how after her first fouett\u00e9<\/a>, she felt a pop in her neck and a warm sensation travel down her spine. \u201cEven just approaching the fouett\u00e9s,\u201d she said, \u201cit was like something tensed up in me and made that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she reached out to a sports psychologist in California<\/a>. \u201cI spent 10 hours with this guy nonstop, talking about my feelings about myself in connection to my career and how I feel people are judging me,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially when it comes to that role, and what it means to be a black woman doing it. I\u2019m trying to get to the root of all of it, and just be like as pure as I can be when I go out there and not carry all that baggage.\u201d…<\/p>\n