Misty Copeland Quotes

As a child, I had been told that I was exactly what a ballerina should be.

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.

Ballet became this escape for me. I feel like I was on my own a lot. I was searching for stability, so I was going off on my own and imagining what I thought stability was. Ballet became a way for me to cope.

40 years old is about the time a principal dancer would start to think about retirement, but some go on to dance a little bit longer than that.

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.

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

I think I get almost every piece of clothing that I buy altered and taken in just to fit me exactly the way it should.

Ballet found me. I was discovered by a teacher in middle school. I always danced, my whole life. I never had any training, never was exposed to seeing dance, but I always had something inside of me.

Ballet was this thing that just felt so innate in me, like I was meant to be doing this.

In the ballet studio, it was such an organized and disciplined environment, like I’d never had in my life. Seeing myself in the mirror, surrounded by the classical music, that’s when I started to fall in love with dance.

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.

My first ballet class was on a basketball court. I’m in my gym clothes and my socks trying to do this thing called ballet. I didn’t know anything about it.

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.

‘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.