Top 66 Misty Copeland Quotes

I don’t want to be anything else other than a ballerina. I love what I do outside of my work, but at the end of the day, I have to sacrifice.

I had always been proud of my body – its strength and grace enabled me to pursue my passions.

Ballet was so structured. I’d been craving something that could guide me.

Depending on the level you’re at in your company, the higher you go up in rank, usually the longer you can dance.

The ballet world I don’t think is an art form that is quick to change or to adjust or evolve.

I think I’m pretty laid back. I like cooking, being at home, and going to concerts. And I love to shop!

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.

I have the opportunity, which most people don’t experience nearly as much, of being in front of a mirror up to 10 hours a day. Staring at your body, you really get to know every little detail of how to make yourself look your best.

I was on a path. I was going to become a principal dancer. I never let my mind rest.

I say over and over again that I am just standing on the shoulders of so many who have set this path for me, and they may not be seen or recognized or have been given an opportunity to have a voice, but I’m here representing all of those dancers. Dance Theatre of Harlem Virginia Johnson, Tai Jimenez, Lauren Anderson.

My family didn’t have very much money, so ballet wasn’t even on my radar; I just found it randomly when I was 13 at a Boys & Girls Club. We were practicing in a basketball court in gym clothes with some old socks on. Even though it terrified me at first, I found that I really liked it.

Dance kind of was always just a part of my natural state as a child. It’s something that, whenever music was playing, I was dancing.

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.

I think body-image issues are not just a dancer thing. I think we’re much more in tune and aware because the body is our instrument and art, and we stare at ourselves in a mirror all day, but I feel like it’s something that every woman experiences and every girl experiences.

I love heels. I’m 5-foot-2, and I like feeling tall.

It’s going to take a while before we see a real shift in the students and the dancers that are going into professional companies because it takes so many years of training, but I do think that there’s a new crop of dancers, of minority dancers that are entering into the ballet world.

Whenever there was chaos in my house, whether it was arguing, being in a cramped space with all of us kids and screaming, I found an empty space where I could just put music on and move.

Every time I step onto the stage, it’s not only proving to the audience that I’m capable but to myself.

Perseverance has always just been something that was in me. And it was a tool that came in very handy as a ballerina.

I was the first person in my family who was ever interested in dance, or fine art of any kind for that matter – I came from a very humble beginning in San Pedro, California.

I know that I’m talented, and I know that I’m not in American Ballet Theater because I’m black – I’m here because I’m a gifted dancer.

I traced the marley floor with my pointe shoes, and imagine myself on the stage, not as a member of the corps, but as a principal dancer. It felt right. It felt like a promise. Some day, somehow, it was going to happen for me.

My childhood is a part of my story, and it’s why I’m who I am today and why my career is what it is.

Finding great training, I think, is number one. I did a lot of research and found really great teachers, and it just takes – I took a year off from school and did independent studies so that I could devote all of my time to it. But I think that training is the key, definitely, and it’s not a sport.

I’ve always approached my career and my life, you know, one day at a time, as if this was the last day that I’m going, because you never know as an athlete and as a dancer. You never know what can happen today, tomorrow.

‘The Company’ was interesting. I didn’t love it, although it might be compelling to someone who isn’t a dancer. There wasn’t a lot of dialogue, and you were just kind of observing the creative process of choreography and in class.

Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.

More often than we realize, people see in us what we don’t see in ourselves.

I was seventeen when I moved to New York. I was nineteen when I joined the main company. I was going through a lot. Just becoming an adult and just wanting to fit in, be accepted, and be in common with the other dancers.

I feel like with ‘On the Town,’ it was the perfect production and the perfect opportunity.

That something that I fought so hard for throughout the beginning of my career is I didn’t want to pancake my skin a lighter color to fit into the… ballet. I wanted to be myself. I didn’t want to have to wear makeup that made my nose look thinner.

Though I have tremendous support from lots of people, there are so many others waiting to tear me down.

Don’t hold on to the barre like, ‘I might die.’ It’s just ballet.

Most ballerinas take their first ballet class when they are 5 or 6 years old. I was 13 when I took mine on the basketball court of the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club in California.

All you can do is be your best self. I’ve always felt that I had to be that much more aware of how I present myself. I’m representing more than just me. I think every person should think that way.

I didn’t care how much work it would take, and I didn’t see the time invested as a waste or like I was missing out on anything. Ballet became my ultimate passion.

It’s hard to change someone’s ideas when they might not even really consciously know that they’re being racist, or have racist ideas, just because ballet has been this way for hundreds of years.

At least in my performances, the audience has become so diverse in a way that I don’t think ballet has ever experienced.

When I was dancing, I felt in control and happy. I’m a Virgo, so I really like to be in control.

It’s all so surreal, and I’m living my dream. And you know, principal or not, I’m getting to dance all the roles that I’ve dreamed of doing.

I wake up every morning, and I go to ballet class no matter what’s going on the night before. That’s my priority, and that’s what makes me feel sane and not removed from the realities of my world.

I didn’t want to be the best at anything; I just wanted to blend in. And that was kind of my existence throughout my family experiences at home of just kind of blending in in the background through my other siblings, which was easy to do.

I think that having a platform and having a voice to be seen by people beyond the classical ballet world has really been my power, I feel.

‘The Firebird’ just symbolizes a lot for me and my career. It was one of the first really big principal roles that I was ever given an opportunity to dance with American Ballet Theatre, and it was a huge step for the African-American community, I think, within the classical ballet world.

It’s a European art form, and you’re used to seeing a certain type of person as a ballerina. And I don’t look like a lot of the girls around me.

I’m definitely influenced by the music. We dance to music, and you have to listen to it and phrase your dancing and movement in a certain way to compliment the music. We have to work hand in hand, the dancer and the music.

The classical ballet world is so exclusive and small, and a lot of people don’t know about it.

I am a black woman, and my experiences would not be what they are if I wasn’t. I’m so happy to share those experiences for other people to be able to learn from them.

It’s weird for minorities even just to buy tickets to the ballet. We feel like it’s not a part of our lives and we’re not a part of that world.

Being one of the few African American women to make it to this level in a classical ballet company, the level of American Ballet Theatre, takes a lot of perseverance.

I think that the ideal physique and look of a ballerina is always changing with different eras. And it’s continuing to change.

I want the ballet world to be given the respect that it deserves and to be seen by more people – for so many to experience the beauty that I’ve received from the ballet world.

I feel like going to class every morning is so humbling. You’re always working to improve, and you’re always being critiqued on your next performance. It’s not about what you’ve done. There’s always room to grow.

My curves became an integral part of who I am as a dancer, not something I needed to lose to become one.

I think all dancers are control freaks a bit. We just want to be in control of ourselves and our bodies. That’s just what the ballet structure, I think, kind of puts inside of you.