Misty Copeland is American Ballet Theatre’s first African-American principal dancer. She has come a long way from her first ballet class on a basketball court at the Boys & Girls Club. As one of Variety’s Power of Women honorees, she has chosen to highlight Project Plie, the diversity initiative for which ABT has partnered with the Boys & Girls Club of America. Project Plie aims to create an infrastructure of training and support for underrepresented communities in the classical ballet world. As part of the program, Boys & Girls Clubs around the U.S. host activities and master classes led by teachers certified in the ABT training curriculum. Copeland, the Kansas City native whose entree into ballet was enabled by the encouragement and training of a local teacher, knows the importance of mentorship, especially for aspiring dancers of color who might not see a place for themselves in a classical ballet world that is still mostly white. “It’s so much a part of my upbringing and my experience as a professional dancer,” she says. “I was the only African-American woman at ABT for a decade, and so much of what I do now is mentoring young minority dancers and trying to be a support system for them. It feeds me as an artist and as a person, and I learn more and more about myself and what’s lacking and what needs to be done in the professional ballet world.” Source: Variety |