Representation on Pointe: Misty Copeland Transformation of Dance and culture

https://mistycopeland.com/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/style/misty-copeland-retirement-cec
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20231214-misty-copeland-interview-influential-katty-kay
https://www.mistycopelandfoundation.org/
https://www.wdbj7.com/2025/10/23/misty-copeland-hangs-up-her-pointe-shoes-after-performing-adoring-crowd-retirement-show/
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/ballerinas-tale/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Misty-Copeland

Misty Copeland is an African American ballet dancer and author. She made history in 2015 and became a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre. Misty Copeland was able to break through the barriers that had excluded dancers of color for generations. Her advocacy for diversity and accessibility in the arts was able to launch her own foundation to support young dancers in marginalized communities. Her artistry also brought a renewed focus on expressive, humanistic performance, redefining what a ballerina could be. Copeland’s journey shows how representation can reshape tradition, inspire social change, and expand the meaning of art and culture.

Misty Copeland began her journey under circumstances that defied ballet’s traditions. She was able to begin studies at the late age of 13 where she considered it too late for professional success. Yet, her exceptional natural ability quickly drew attention. Within a year, she was performing en pointe, and by fifteen, she had won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award. Misty has then joined the American Ballet Theatre in the early 2000s as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001. The article of Misty Copeland (“The official Website of Misty Copeland”,https://mistycopeland.com/about-2/), it gives us a full history and understanding about Misty Copeland. It is known that Misty Copeland is the first African American principal dancer. It’s stated, “In June 2015, Misty was promoted to principal dancer, making her the first African American woman to ever be promoted to the position in the company’s 75-year history.” By becoming the first black woman principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre she was able to transform and inspire the new generation of dance bringing more diversity and representation to the art form.

Copeland’s influence extends beyond her dance career, she has become a powerful symbol of representation and empowerment for the new generation. As a highly visible figure and the first African American female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, she served as a potent symbol of progress both on and off the stage. She didn’t just use dance, she also used her voice to advocate for representation. She has done an interview with “Good Morning America,” and has explained why she uses her voice. In this abc article (https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/misty-copeland-acknowledging-race-ballet-revolutionizing-art-form/story?id=75600980) it has stated from Misty Copland, “Dancers aren’t often allowed or given a space to be able to use our voices; we’re in a silent art form and are often silenced,” she said. “When it comes to our opinions about things, we’re often told just what to do and expected to just do it. And I’ve really taken on that responsibility in that role in using my voice to share the realities of the ballet world, the beauty of it, but also the things that need to grow and change.” According to this quote Misty’s quote highlights how dancers, especially in the ballet, would only use their movement not their voices. However Copeland emphasized that and she chose to break that rule by speaking up using her platform to celebrate the beauty of ballet while also calling attention to its problems and the need for change.

Misty Copeland has worked to make the arts more accessible and equitable. Through her continued advocacy, she has supported diversity programs such as ABT’s Project Plié, which aims to create opportunities for dancers from underrepresented communities. She was also able to encourage others to examine their own biases. Which was able to give audiences to be able to embrace a new perspective on who belongs in the world of ballet. In the article, “https://research-ebsco-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/c/7o7b7t/ebook-viewer/pdf/pcw7o67shb/section/lp_39?location=https%25253A%25252F%25252Fresearch-ebsco-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu%25252Fc%25252F7o7b7t%25252Fsearch%25252Fdetails%25252Fpcw7o67shb%25253Fdb%25253De868sww” it has stated, “Copeland’s impact on ballet has been huge. Her story has inspired millions. Dance changed her life. She now strives to give that gift to others. Copeland then strengthened the art of ballet. Her success has paved the way for a more inclusive dance world. Her career not only elevated her art but also ignited conversations about race, beauty, and belonging across the cultural landscape.

Misty Copeland’s story is one of transformation of the arts, culture, and through representation of ballet. By breaking through the barriers and being able to redefine what a ballet dancer is supposed to look like, Misty Copelan was able to open the doors for the new generations and broadened the meaning of artistic excellence. Through that her legacy was able to prove that representation matters not only as a symbol of an inclusion but as a force for progress and creativity. With that Copeland has shown that art of ballet most when it reflects the diversity of the world around it and being able to show that anyone is able to become a ballet dancer and illustrate how representation can reshape long held traditions, drive social progress, and being able to widen the possibilities of art and culture.

When it was time to start making my classes for the fall I was a bit hesitant at first because I wasn’t really a music major guy. But I gave this class a try to see where it takes me and how it would help me throughout my college life, and overall I really enjoy both the composition of creative expression and the FIQWS course. I was able to improve on my thinking skills and my writing skills during this course. I really enjoy writing about the arts of musical theater, which made me able to understand a new different language of the arts. I was able to understand the movements, the sets, the designs, choreography and many more. In this essay I will talk about how this course is able to help me throughout the rest of my college life and how it changed my thinking and improved my writing skills.

In the FIQWS course it has helped me a lot with my writing/reading skills. It improves on when it comes to writing essays and it comes to cite my evidence. I was able to learn how we are supposed to cite our evidence when it comes to our essay. I am able to use these skills later on in my college life because when it comes to finding evidence for a pacific person or a topic, instead of going on google I could just use the CCNY library and find sources and use them to cite my evidence. An example I can use is my Analysis essay. When it came to writing that essay I had to watch a video called Snow, at first I wasn’t really too much into it but after a few more watches I got into it. I was able to write about this song in an essay to someone who hasn’t seen the video. At first I could have done better with actually adding some of the lyrics into the essay in order to prove my point of what I want the reader to understand. But after I fixed my mistake I was able to see some improvement on how to analyse a song and make it into an essay.

When it came to the Genre Translation project I would say it is one of the most assignments/projects that was kind of confessing for me. This assignment was where we pick something we have talked about in class and we have to ether, make it into a short story, put it into a poem, make a poster about, etc. I picked the song “Snow” and have decided to make it into a short story about a girl in Thailand. Now the only problem I had was how would I make this into a short story because I wasn’t really a writer that much. Now I did gain something from that which was being able to use my skills and my imagination of thinking that I’m that character from the song and I’m just giving a short story about my experience. This was just the middle of my accomplishment being able to put myself in other people’s shoes and use their ideas and their pov and use them to write a short story.

My last college paper that I wrote for this class was my research essay and I was able to write about any topic of my choice. For my paper I have decided to write about, “Misty Copeland’s Transformation of Art and Culture Through Representation”. This was a fun paper because I’am not really a big writer like that but if I’m able to pick and choose my own ideas and pick my own topic that I decided to write about that’s what makes it fun. Now the only hard part was finding information about Misty Copeland, which took some time but I was able to find a lot about her. I also picked her because I found out she was one of the first Black women to be a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. And since this is a culture/musicals class, I thought Misty Copeland would be a great topic to write about. This helps me gain a lot of knowledge to use evidence to support my thesis. When it also came to putting my evidence in my essay and just putting in the story or the author wrote, I would use the sources of where I found my evidence making it sound have a better tone and sound to it. I would say this essay really proved my writing skills on how an essay should be written.

As the semester comes to an end I have learned a lot in this class. I was able to see the growth in my reading but mainly in my writing skills. I have enjoyed all the work we have done in the class. It was really fun and great to use my ideas. Each assignment from the analysis essay, to the Genre Translation project, to my final research paper really challenges me in different ways and is able to help me see how much I have grown. Overall taking this course has helped me grow not only as a writer but also as a thinker, it has really shown me different skills of learning and I will be using these skills in my future classes I would be taking throughout my college experience.

In the song called “Snow” by Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinutoke, I will be talking about how the 2 girls both express their feelings about snow throughout the essay, and how they both view it differently. In my body paragraphs, I will be explaining why both of these 2 girls express snow in their own way. 

Throughout the song “Snow,” we get introduced to these 2 girls, named 

Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinutoke. Both of these girls are singing about snow, giving their own opinions on it. We have noticed that there are some differences we see in the song. For example, the girl from Thailand has always wanted to see snow in her life. She wanted to feel snow, taste snow, and many more, but she is unable to because of where she lives. The way she is singing and how she looks at her facial expression show us how excited she really is to see snow. You can also notice how calm and relaxed her voice is. If you also notice how the girl from New York is looking at her, it’s like she’s giving her a confused reaction on why she wants to see snow so much. Not to mention when the girl from Thailand is talking about how beautiful the snow is, the girl from New York just looked and pointed out that the snow is “dirty and sometimes yellow”. With her saying that she would have thought the girl from Thailand would change her mind about snow, but instead she said that it’s awesome, which makes the New York girl confused.

In the song “Snow,” the girl from Thailand is calmer and has relaxing body movements, and has the excitement of seeing snow. While the girl from New York isn’t so excited about snow because she comes from New York and she is already used to the snow. The girl from Thailand is trying to express her feelings for snow. But when the girl from New York hears it she doesn’t seem all that excited and happy for the snow. You can tell how she is describing the snow and how it’s dirty, and she can’t really eat or play with it that much. Her voice is also a bit deeper than the girl from Thailand. The reason behind that is that she really doesn’t care about the snow in New York because of how dirty it really is. It can also be shown that she mocks her a little bit, and you can tell by her facial expression and body language, where she can give a confused look on why she wants to see snow so badly in her life, where she says she’s from New York, and she always sees snow.

Seeing how both of these girls had two different opinions of snow, when the song was almost over, they were both able to come together and make a friendship for loving snow. The reason I say this is how we can see when the New York girl was singing in the snow, her voice was a little bit deeper, but we noticed it got a little bigger when she remembered all the fun times she had with snow. This is what brought the Thai girls’ attention to ask her to elaborate more on snow. Naming all the fun stuff, such as making snowmen, having snow fights, seeing the snowflakes, and many more. You could see how her face was changing as she expressed her feelings about her way of snow. Once she realizes how lucky she is to have snow and to enjoy it made she remembers that she loved snow and took it for granted. 

In the song called “Snow” by Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinutoke, the two girls were talking about snow. One girl lived in Thailand and had never seen snow in person because of the area where she lives, and she also wanted to experience snow in her life. Was the girl from New York always seen snow and wasn’t all that excited about snow because she calls it dirty? While they both were able to sing about their feelings for snow, the Thai girl was able to give the girl from New York a memory she had about snow, which was shared at the end of the song. Once she understood that the snow could be dirty sometimes, she was still able to enjoy it. Once they both came together and loved snow, they were able to form a friendship. 

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