Misty Danielle Copeland was born on September 10, 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri
and raised in San Pedro, California. She lived with her single mother, Sylvia
DelaCerna, along with her five siblings. Her siblings names were Erica, Chris, and
Doug Jr. During Misty's child years, Sylvia had relationships with two men, Harold
Brown and Robert DelaCerna. At first Misty's mom was married to Harold. Misty
liked Harold a lot, but soon the couple was divorced because he smoked and Sylvia
had lost her love for him. Misty was sad but she kept on going when Sylvia married
Robert DelaCerna. The family moved into his house and soon got used to living in a
house instead of a small apartment. However Robert forced the kids to do all the
chores and hurt them if they didn't. Once, Doug Jr. didn't do his chores and when
Robert came home, he grabbed the boy by his shirt, walked up the stairs and threw
him down the them! Misty had told Sylvia and that night was the first night she heard
fighting in Sylvia and Robert's bedroom. She heard fighting every night. Soon she
could see the huge awful bruises that Sylvia tried to hide. Sylvia soon told Misty what
was going on at night. She said that she had told Robert that she and her children
were going to leave because of how he was treating her children. He had hurt her and
yelled that he wouldn't allow it. A few days passed and Sylvia told the children that
before Robert left for work she would leave for her job as normal, but she would come
back early. She said that while she was gone, they had to pack all their belongings and
leave once she came home. That way, they would be gone a few hours before Robert
came back home. A week later they were all in a hotel room and were eating out of
vending machines. Misty soon began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San
Pedro Dance Center with her teacher, Cynthia Bradley. After three months of study,
Misty was en pointe. Several years later, Misty auditioned for several dance programs
in 1999, and each made her an offer to enroll in its summer program. She performed
with American Ballet Theature (ABT) as part of its 1999 and 2000 Summer Intensive
programs. By the end of the first summer, she was asked to join the ABT Studio
Company. Sylvia insisted that she finish high school, so Misty returned to California
for her senior year, even though ABT arranged to pay for her performances, housing
and academic arrangements. She studied at the Summer Intensive Program on full
scholarship for both summers and became very famous when she danced in a
performance of one of Prince Roger Nelson's singing shows. In the 2000 Summer
Intensive Program, she danced the role of Kitri in “Don Quixote”. Her strongest
memory from the summer is working with choreographer Twyla Tharp on “Push
Comes to Shove”. She was pushed way down during the summer because other
dancers made fun of her and didn't think she was worthy of dancing with the white
dancers. But she never gave up! Of the 150 dancers in the 2000 Summer Intensive
Program, she was one of six selected to join the junior dance troupe. A couple years
later, she became ABT's professional principal dancer. Then she started hurting in her
back and left shin. But she ignored it! She started to get over-weight because she
would devour 12 or more doughnuts after class. Why? Because she was still being
bullied. Eating so much food and suger kind’ve pushed that to the back of her head.
And because of her injuries, Misty was told to take a year off! During that year, she
came back to her normal weight and met her future husband, Olu Evans. When the
year was over, she was healed and went back to dancing. Two of her most famous
dances are Odette/Odile in 'Swan Lake' and Firebird in 'Firebird'. As a Ballet dancer
myself, Misty is one of my role models. I admire how she wouldn't let bullies and her
skin color get in the way. I also admire how she still wrote a book about other dancers
and how she praised them for their accomplishments even though she felt proud of
herself. I love watching her performances and I really want to reach my goal and not
let anything get in the way! Dancing is a way of expressing your emotions with the
music, and motions, and feeling. A dancer can show what they’re feeling so well and it
makes me cry when I watch Misty express her feelings so well in her dance. With all
that she went through, dance probably helped alot.
Some quotes from Misty Copeland:
1. “Start unknown, finish unforgettable.”
2.“I may not be there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday”
3. “It's time to write our own story.”
4. “This is for the little brown girls.”
5. “Know that you can start late, look different, be uncertain and still succeed.”
6. “I can do anything when I am in a tutu.”
7.“put on a performance that hid all the strings, leaving only stardust for the audience to
see.”
8. “Don’t underestimate yourself. You are more capable than you think.”
9. “Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.
This makes me want to meet Misty Copeland 😊