Ballerina Misty Copeland: Unlocking potential and a leader’s most ‘vital’ role

Misty Copeland Yes. When I was when I was introduced to ballet, I was an extremely introverted and shy young girl. when I was given the opportunity to be in a ballet class, it was terrifying initially. it was a teacher who invested in me, who saw potential in me, gave me opportunity and gave me access and kept saying, come back I see potential in you.

This is something that you can take bigger than you could ever imagine. And those were incredible skills that I that I started to hone, to be persistent and to not give up, the resilience. And to this day those I know that that’s because of ballet that those are instilled in me.

Linda Lacina, Meet The Leader Welcome to Meet the Leader. I am Linda Lacina and I am proud to introduce you to Misty Copeland. She is a ballerina, an author, an activist. She's also a little bit of a trailblazer. She is the first Black woman to be promoted to principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater.

She has used her unique platform, experience and perspective to found the Misty Copeland Foundation, to help find innovative ways to drive social inclusion and social justice inclusion in the arts. How are you this evening?

Misty Copeland, Misty Copeland Foundation I’m great. So happy to be here.

Linda Lacina So excited to have you here. I want to talk a little bit about the diversity gap that we have in so many fields but especially ballet. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Misty Copeland Yes. The diversity gap in classical ballet is great. This is a European art form. It’s an art form that was created for and by white European people. So, you know, with the growth and evolution of this art form and coming to the States specifically, there are some adjustments that need to be made. When you’re dealing with a different demographic.

And so we have this ideal of what a ballerina or a dancer should look like and that is typically a thin white, little muscle, very lean and typically comes from a background that gives them the ability to afford to be a part, the means to be a part of this art. And so when it comes to race and body type, even socio-economic background, it definitely excludes a large group of people and communities.

And it’s something that I have spent my career fighting for in support of and giving access and opportunity to those who are not being supported in the environments with big ballet institutions that still have a long way to go.

But why wait for them to come along and evolve when I can start my own organization and do work outside of these institutions that I think will then prepare a larger group of diverse people to want to participate and be a part of it and take away the stigma where they say, well, there just aren’t enough out there who are interested and who come from different backgrounds or they don’t have the right body types.

All we can do is show them that that’s not true.

Linda Lacina Tell me a little bit about the Misty Copeland Foundation. First off, just what it is.

Misty Copeland The Misty Copeland Foundation is an organization I started about three years ago, really, with the idea of giving opportunity and access to young people in under-served, under-resourced communities to be exposed to the arts, to music, to dance and to ballet specifically.

Through the foundation, it’s really giving me an opportunity to bridge this gap that I feel is really difficult to do – again, within the larger institutions – and to set different programmes that will again give access and opportunity to communities like I grew up in. And for these young people to see their reflection, to see people who look like them, who are who are teaching them and who are in front of them.

Linda Lacina And tell me about some of the programmes and some of the things the children are learning.

Misty Copeland Our signature programme through the Misty Copeland Foundation is called “Be Bold”. It’s so exciting. I can’t help but smile when I when I speak about it, because this came about through my own experience coming from an underprivileged community and being given an opportunity and access to be exposed to and participate in classical ballet at a community centre for free in an after school setting.

So Be Bold stands for Ballet Explorations. Ballet offers leadership development. And I often say that, yes, this is a free ballet class. That, you know, it’s affordable, it’s accessible and it’s fun. But to me, it’s bigger than ballet. It’s giving these young people tools to be leaders, which is why that’s in the title of Be Bold. It’s about leadership development.

So it’s free for all of the children that we’re reaching. And right now we’re focused on the communities of the Bronx and Harlem in New York City, in the United States, because those are communities that do not have access to to the arts, very little and specifically ballet.

But I wanted to create something that was for the people we are going to be serving. So not just bringing a traditional ballet class again that was made hundreds and hundreds of years ago for and by white men, white European men and bringing it to a black and brown community and having them say, how does this reflect me and the life I’m living daily? What can I do with this?

And so we were very intentional about creating a framework from the ground up that, yes, focuses on the basics of of beginner ballet, live music. We’re really still filling out the health and wellness aspect of the programme and the tutoring and the mentoring but really making it a holistic experience for the people that we’re serving.

It’s really exciting to see them and we serve a lot of boys as well, which often don’t feel this is something that I feel they can participate in but they’re being taught by people who look like them that maybe even come from their communities that live around the corner.

They’re a part of our teacher training programme that prepares them to be able to teach these children. We also have a child psychologist on board that helped us to develop our Be Bold programme, DEI consultant. So these are all fundamentals in developing what this dance class looks like and being able to also measure it along the way, the outcomes.

Linda Lacina And so there’s a couple elements here when we kind of dig in on what the children are learning and there’s sort of like a blocks of it. So you guys are approaching ballet in a different way, the actual techniques of it. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Misty Copeland Yes, this is a very different approach to your traditional ballet class. And one thing that I really wanted to focus on and change is this, I say perception but it is often the truth in a lot of situations, that you come into a classroom in a ballet class and you no longer have a voice. You are literally not allowed to speak. There’s no collaboration in any way.

You’re being told exactly what to do and you can’t kind of step out of that framework. It’s often very abusive in a lot of ways and people end up having a terrible experience and traumatic experience by being a part of it. A lot of the teaching artists that we’ve brought in have had those experiences and it’s like a healing process to be a part of the programme.

But we’re trying to make it an environment that they want to return to. This is a lot of the community centres that we are partnering with and are stepping into their own, they give the children the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to be a part of this.

So they step into the classroom and they immediately start to create community with what we call circling up. And it’s a check in. It’s a check in with getting the temperature of how they are, what their day has already been like.

They’re coming to us at the end of the day when who knows what’s happened from the start of the day at home to what they’re experiencing in school, whether or not they’ve had a meal. There are so many things that are important and priority to us. And ballet happens just to be a tool to access them.

So when they enter the room, they can decide how they want to be greeted. Do they want to shake hands? Do they want to exchange words? Do they want to be hugged? And that also lets us feel out the temperature of where they’re at and how we see their progress throughout the class.

They circle up, we ask them a question that might be fun and it’s not something that they might be thinking like, oh they’re trying to figure out how I’m feeling emotionally but it’s it’s a fun game.

You know, these are 5 to 12 year olds, so we’re not dealing with teenagers, you know, older teenagers. But name a colour of how you might be feeling today or the weather or an animal. Getting them to use their voice and engage, which they wouldn’t typically do in a ballet class.

Once they start moving, it’s really about kind of free movement in their warm up. Then they either are at a barre depending on their age level or they’re in centre, learning the very fundamental basics of ballet. They’re starting with plies, they do tendus, they do relevés and it’s all kind of through rhythmic, fun, fun ways of getting them to approach these steps.

And again, we have live musicians who are playing and are really participating and they’re not just accompanists, which often is the case in a dance class. They are teaching artists as well. So they have a voice in the classroom, which is very different from a traditional ballet class and they’re playing every kind of instrument you can think of.

This is not just classical piano. There are bongos, African drums, saxophone, guitar, bass. It’s really a range of instruments, which is also an entry point for young people to want to come into the room as well. They have a way of doing free exploratory movement, creativity and using the things that they’ve learned through the technique of ballet but making it their own.

They learn Black and brown ballet history throughout the class as well. They might name the bars after a Black or brown dancer and then they have to know a fact about them, which we will give them that information in the beginning of the course, which is a 12-week programme, two classes a week and again in these community-based sites.

Linda Lacina And there’s also the leadership part. And it’s really interesting to me because when people talk about leadership, sometimes it’s unclear what those people are learning. But in this case, there’s things like vocabulary, etiquette, social and emotional skills.

Can you talk a little bit about those skills? Why are those so important? Why did you choose those and what is their connection to leadership?

Misty Copeland The skills that can be developed through dance, art and ballet to me are such incredible leadership skills. It wasn’t even about me kind of choosing certain skills that I wanted to learn. This is a given when you’re a part of ballet, which I feel like at its origin and base and what it really is, if you just think about the technique of ballet, it’s really built in to create these future leaders.

But I think a lot of people have come in to the ballet community and are suppressing that. And it’s like it’s naturally already there by being a part of something that teaches you resilience and discipline and grace and humility when you’re having to put yourself out there and be vulnerable.

Collaboration and community having to follow, also having to lead, having to be a part of a team. Also then being an individual and maybe dancing by yourself sometimes. But these, I think, are all important leadership skills.

And, you know, I wish so many of our leaders maybe were exposed to dance and to art and to music and might have a bit more empathy and compassion. Those are the types of leaders that we hope to create.

Linda Lacina And how exactly do you help drive the development of these skills for the kids?

Misty Copeland I mean, it’s really a part of everything that we do. Again, just how I broke down, the way a class is structured, they’re entering into a room and they’re already feeling like this is a space where they can be vulnerable because we’re showing them support and community.

Again, they’re seeing people who might look like them, which allows them to feel like I’m not coming into this space defensive or like I have something to prove but how am I going to open up and learn and showing them that their voices matter, that it’s about collaboration, it’s about listening but it’s also about expressing themselves.

It’s about learning to get through a class and have that resilience. It’s really, again, it’s just a part of a ballet class, if you really think about it. But we’re identifying it and really trying to celebrate all of those incredible skills.

Linda Lacina So as someone who might not have been in a ballet class before and I will out myself, I did do ballet but I was very, very young, so it barely counts, right.

But with ballet, you are practicing, mastering certain skills and the turn of a foot matters. The angle matters. All that matters as part of the joy and the expression of it, right. Can we get the movement right and can we also tell a story. It’s the practice, the practice, the practice.

How do we practice also in these things, something like managing emotions? How does that work within the context of classes?

Misty Copeland That’s a great question. I think that when you’re when you’re talking about young people and managing emotions, I think that being able to have control over your body is already an incredible way to be able to regulate those things, which is, I think, why it’s so important for people to move and experience being a part of athletics and sports or art in any way.

I think that it’s a beautiful way, whether it’s just sitting down and breathing, teaching the children how to breathe helps to regulate their emotions, especially at the age group that we’re working with – from 5 to 12 year olds – being able to use music as also a form of meditation.

For me, ballet class every single morning is a form of meditation that allows me to regulate everything I may be experiencing outside of the studio or managing the stress of what I might be going through in a rehearsal day leading up to a performance.

But there’s something that’s so innate that I don’t feel we often talk about and that every community has and that’s dance and music and the way that it allows us to come together. And that’s a beautiful, I think, way for us all to connect and maybe regulate.

Linda Lacina So, the Be Bold programme measures results, to sort of understand where it stands. Can you talk a little bit about that? You guys had an evaluation for its first year. What did you guys find out? What does that look like when you’re sort of measuring success? What effects has it had?

Misty Copeland Yeah, it’s different. You know, I think with each site that we’re visiting because we’re dealing with different children from different experiences but when we’re measuring and we’re evaluating how the programme is benefiting these children, what’s been really incredible is seeing the ways that their parents or their caregivers are informing us that their grades have improved at school.

They’re more focused. There’s an understanding of structure in a way that maybe they didn’t have. That was my experience. I didn’t have any real structure or consistency in my life. And ballet was the first time where I could walk in and I knew exactly what was going to happen. And there’s so much comfort and safety in that for a young person, especially, who might not have that outside of this experience.

And so I think just seeing how it’s translating into different things in their lives, they’re able to see the way that we’re allowing them to use their voice and we’re using different ways of teaching them.

Some teachers put visuals on the walls or writing the names of the steps and having them read read facts about the artists they’re learning about, and then learning where are they in their reading skills and their language skills. And how can we kind of help to bridge that gap from what’s happening at their school or even inform their parents or their teachers as to what’s going on?

We’ve had developments that there have been some children that don’t know how to read and are somehow getting by in their schools. And this has been revealed in our classrooms, which is why we really wanted to fill out and develop the tutoring and the mentoring pieces of this. But through the measuring that we’re doing, we’re able to kind of uncover all of this and see the benefits of the work that we’re doing in these communities.

Linda Lacina I read on your site that one of the evaluations found that most students showed an increased awareness of needs and emotions and there was a greater sense of personal responsibility, which is really something else.

If I’m a leader listening to this, all those things sound real good for me to have in the office. What should I do? What can I do to maybe learn from from dance itself or learn from your programme? What maybe things can I steal and put into place?

Misty Copeland You know, I think so much when it comes to leadership is setting an example, being able to implement all the things that you’re expecting of the people that you are leading, I think is really valuable.

And that’s why it’s so important that we put so much into our teaching artists or musicians and our dancing teaching artists to prepare them to show how to lead, how to lead in a compassionate way, how to show strength.

And that’s been my experience as well through the mentorship that I’ve had in the leadership that I’ve been exposed to. So they are leading by example. It wasn’t even about saying these are the skills you need and this is how you need to do it. But I’m watching them navigate and the way they share stories with me, the lessons I’m learning through watching them has been really beneficial.

Linda Lacina So to model the behaviours that you would like to see out there to get that outcome.

Misty Copeland Yes.

Linda Lacina Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to talk a little bit about what inspired you. Can you just take us to that turning point moment – that moment where you’re like, not only does there need to be an organization for this but I’m really the best placed to start it. And what was that moment for you? Take me back to it.

Misty Copeland There’s always been something within me that felt like, my performance career, my 25 years now at American Ballet Theater was not the end.

That having this platform that my performance career has given me is really a jumping off point to do so many other things, to give opportunity to those who might not otherwise have it, because that’s how I was exposed to this beautiful art form.

And that made me not just the performer that I am but the human and the woman that I am. But of course, with my very busy career and working for 25 years nonstop as a professional ballerina, I didn’t have the time. So once the pandemic hit, it was so difficult to watch so many people struggling.

And I felt like, okay, this is a moment for me that I actually have the time now to focus on these things. I really want to start to grow. And the foundation was one of them and so it just felt like the right time, especially when children weren’t in school and they weren’t in community.

How can I start to develop something that when the world is ready to step back in person, how are we going to kind of bridge that gap of what was already happening but now is what is even more highlighted by these children not being together and not being in community.

And so that’s how we started to develop the Be Bold programme was in that time of crisis. And I always have felt and there’s proof, but that the arts really step in, in those moments, in helping to heal and helping to bring people together in moments of crisis or despair.

Linda Lacina What I think is really interesting, too, is that I was reading your book and you had mentioned earlier that the first exposure to ballet was intimate, sort of a community centre and you wanted to quit your first day but you kept going.

Can you talk a little bit about that? I think it’s a really important moment and it lives right up to both your programme and what leaders can understand. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Misty Copeland Yes. When I was when I was introduced to ballet, I was an extremely introverted and shy young girl. I think that it was already a part of who I am, my personality. But it was also my experiences as a young person, you know, having so much instability, constantly moving.

I mean, I think I had four stepfathers. It was just a lot of instability. And I shut down and I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to be seen. And when I was given the opportunity to be in a ballet class, it was terrifying initially.

I think also because I wasn’t in a traditional setting, which I think is set up, with a lot of thought in mind when you’re in this studio space that feels like this cocoon and you’re very safe and protected. I was on a basketball court where I took my first ballet class and I mean, I’m not in your traditional tights and a leotard. I was in gym clothes and socks.

And I just felt out of place and it didn’t allow me to feel like it was something I wanted to throw myself into and be vulnerable and I think that’s why I was shying away from it. But it was a teacher who invested in me, who saw potential in me, gave me opportunity and gave me access and kept saying, come back I see potential in you.

Like this is something that you can take bigger than you could ever imagine. And those were incredible skills that I that I started to hone, to be persistent and to not give up, the resilience. And to this day those I know that that’s because of ballet that those are instilled in me.

Linda Lacina If I remember correctly, she said that you could be dancing on stages all over the world. How important is it for leaders to help people see a potential that maybe they never even thought about? How important is that?

Misty Copeland For leaders to be able to show people that they have potential beyond what they can imagine I think is so vital. How else or how else are they, especially someone who’s not been given support and not kind of prepared for this trajectory, it’s hard for them to see what’s possible.

And so it’s extremely important, I think, to vocalize those things and to repeat them that sometimes, it’s not just one time that to be able to capture someone and for them to believe that that’s really something that they can have and achieve. And in my first ballet teacher, Cynthia Bradley, was really incredible at that.

She didn’t give up on me. She saw and she said things to me and at the moment, I was like, this lady is out of her mind. You know, she said I was going to be dining with presidents and kings and queens and dancing on the world stages.

And I just thought, you know, I’m living in a motel at this moment with my single mom and five siblings. Like, there’s no way this is possible. But, you know, it was really about preparing me to become an amazing human being who is going to thrive in society and different communities. And it was through ballet that I could get to that place.

Linda Lacina And by the way, you’re sort of start doing that now, you’re at Davos. So, you know, in addition to the rest of your life, your career. Is there something that you do as a leader now that just wouldn’t have occurred to you at the beginning.

Misty Copeland Communication. I mean, I literally was silent as a child. My nickname was Mouse. Returning to high school, seeing friends after I graduated and so many of them that came to me and said, we thought you were mute. I mean, it was that severe.

I think the importance of of being able to really express yourself and communicate and collaborate and listen. Those were all skills that really took me time to to really develop and understand the importance of them, especially in leadership.

Linda Lacina And it was there like a particular thing you do differently now? Is it that you just remember to keep repeating to make sure that you have that repetition? What is it? What do you do?

Misty Copeland Yes, I would say that something that I go back to and my husband has helped me – he’s an incredible leader, he’s an attorney, he’s not a performer in any way but he’s kind of been with me on this journey – and one of the things that he often says to me is that repetition, which when I think about it now, it’s so tied to what I do day in and day out as a dancer.

That repetition is such a part of what we do. But the importance of repeating yourself and being clear about the things that you’re saying because or changing the way that you say it, because not everyone’s going to hear things the same way or in the way you think they’re receiving them.

And so that’s definitely a big part of it and aspect and something that I’m constantly having to think about because it’s not a natural part of who I am when I express myself is doing that.

Linda Lacina To practice soft skills like any other skill. Is there a piece of advice that you’ve always been grateful for?

Misty Copeland My gosh. There’s so much advice I’m grateful for. But I would say, really just coming into my own and understanding my power, especially as an artist and not allowing other people’s words or opinions to define who I am, I think has been something that always has stayed with me that a mentor of mine once told me.

And it really just resonated. And and I think about it often with all the work that I’m doing, even throughout my career.

I mean, I got so much criticism and negative feedback on this trajectory, being the only Black woman at American Ballet Theater for over 10 years and coming up against so much adversity and just remembering, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, what I love to do and not to let other people’s words come in and affect that.

Linda Lacina That’s wonderful Misty. I will thank you so much for being here with us. We definitely appreciate it. And for all of our viewers and our listeners, you can find our podcasts on the World Economic Forum’s YouTube page and find our transcripts and other broadcasts on our website at wef.ch/podcasts.