WEBVTT - BE BOLD! with Misty Copeland & The Misty Copeland Foundation 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.440 So you know, I was having dinner with a couple 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.640 of producers for this show. We were talking about Baltimore's 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:09.800 School of the Arts, where someone on our team worked 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.640 for ten years, and she mentioned that Tupac did ballet, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:20.079 and we were just having this conversation about expanding the 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:26.480 ideas of who can study something like classical ballet, and 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.760 the fact that this is a world that has traditionally 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.879 been sort of narrow in the way the types of 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.960 people that will, you know, study ballet, and also the 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.320 fact that it's hasn't really necessarily tried that hard to 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.600 draw in young men, and certainly not young black men. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.479 And Misty Copeland is my guest today, and she has 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.279 broken records from a young age and now she is 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.160 just pushing for exactly that, for more diversity in dance 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:01.040 with her foundation, the Misty Copeland Foundation. She's the first 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.920 black principal ballerine at the American Ballet Theater, and I 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.319 might add that it took them seventy years to get there. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:22.479 So lean in. I'm glad you're here from this one. Hey, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.160 thank you everybody for being here today. I'm very, very 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.440 excited to have our guest, Misty Copeland with us on 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.880 the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. For those of you 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.280 who don't know, get out from under the Rock. This 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.960 is one of America's greatest ballerina is with an incredible 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:48.440 history and an incredible story. You know, I'm always looking 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.040 for connections. That's kind of like what kind of one 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:56.520 of the essence of this particular podcast. And it's interesting 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:03.520 because recently I was speaking to Eli Manning, who was 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.600 a great quarterback for the New York Giants, and uh, 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.760 I was talking about how hard it is for me 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.960 to picture doing what he does for a living. And 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.320 you know, in my job, I'm constantly meeting with people 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.880 and trying to do research and ride alongs and you know, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.520 trying to make me look like I could actually do 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:28.720 a job that I have would have no idea how 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:30.720 to do. So when I look at something like, you know, 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.720 being a quarterback. But the strange thing is is that 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.359 I did a dance movie and I can't imagine being 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.320 a dancer. I mean, I just I just think about 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:45.560 that like it's you know, the the the discipline and 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.640 the and the and the dedication and the toll on 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.480 your body and all those things in that really tiny 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.920 little moment that I had to experience. It really kicked 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.040 my ass. So I'm really curious about what the what 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.760 the what the what the choice was, and what was 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.080 the road that brought you to this life. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.960 Yeah, I love hearing people's experiences with dance, and so 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:14.000 many people that have ventured into all different, you know, 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.840 areas of whatever it is they choose to do, have 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:18.920 some sort of connection with it, you know. I think 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:25.280 it's such a an innate part of us as human beings. 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.160 Like what we do, Like the first thing we do 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.560 when we come out of the womb is we scream 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:30.720 and we move our bodies. 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:31.600 Like that's like how. 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.880 We communicate before we have language, we move our bodies, 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.120 and so it's it's always fascinating for me to hear 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.040 people's experience with that. And it was something that I 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.720 kind of clung onto from a very young age, growing 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.080 up one of six children in a single parent home, 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:54.640 a middle child, and already I was very shy and introverted, 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:59.080 and so dance became this very natural outlet for me 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:04.640 to find my voice. But ballet, I had no introduction 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:05.960 to ballet at all. 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:07.240 I didn't know what it was. 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.800 I'd never heard classical music, and that wouldn't come into 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.560 my life until I was thirteen years. 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.600 Old, and it was, so, what were you listening to? 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:21.159 Oh Man, Well, Mariah Carey was a huge, a huge 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.960 inspiration for me because she her her debut album came 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.279 out when I was like seven eight years old, and 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:30.680 you know, it was the first time I felt. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.400 Really connected to someone and I felt like I could 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.159 see myself there her being biracial, and I felt like 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.680 I didn't have a lot of that representation. That's not 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.200 something I could identify at that age. It would take 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.360 me years to like really recognize why I was so 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.200 fascinated by. I saw something that you recognized, but I 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.359 saw something. But I listened to a lot of like 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.680 pop and hip hop and R and B music, and 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.839 I was creating to that. So when I was introduced 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.200 to ballet, it was so foreign. It was at a 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.800 boys and girls club at my community center that was 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.200 like right across the street from the public school I 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:10.360 was attending in San Pedro, California. And immediately the teacher 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.680 who was offering this free ballet class at the boys 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.120 and Girls club on the basketball court in the gym, 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:23.240 she immediately saw talent she said, you're a prodigy, and 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.800 I want to bring you into my school in full scholarship. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:27.280 And it was. 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.760 Shocking to me, like I didn't really know what ballet. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:33.840 Maybe I didn't hear that. How old were you? 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:35.000 I was thirteen? 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.840 Thirteen, Okay, so thirteen seems kind of isn't it kind 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:44.400 of late? Before ballet it is old. It has been. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.920 Yeah, I mean similar to you know when you think 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:53.800 about like figure skaters or gymnasts, you know there's, yeah, 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.599 you start young, or there's this idea that you want 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.960 to mold the body and really ingrain this language and 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:09.640 technique before the body hits puberty to be blunt and 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.520 just so that it's something that's really ingrained and become 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.760 second nature. So by the time you become a teenager 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.599 a young adult, you're not thinking about these things. 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.320 You're starting to work on your artistry because. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.720 It's literally wanting to mold the actual body of the 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.520 child into into whatever that thing happens. 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:28.440 To be exactly. 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.200 And you know, I think I was built for this. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.760 I think I was born with the body and my 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.600 body was still agile and like really just kind of 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.719 soaked up all of this information so quickly uh, you know, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.400 and I was called a prodigy. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.760 And it took some uh some. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.479 Kind of you know, like pushing for me to really 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:57.560 want to commit to it because at the time, I 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:59.640 was on the dance team at my middle school and 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:01.960 that me was like so much fun. I was dancing 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.160 to like George Michael and and I was like, I 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.719 didn't really have any interest in this thing called, you know, 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.400 classical ballet and classical music. But it wasn't until I 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.600 left the boys and Girls club and was taken into 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:15.920 the local ballet school that I really started to feel 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.320 empowered and and like I was a part of something 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.239 that was bigger than me, that I had a sense 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:27.120 of purpose that I never experienced. And it was like 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:33.480 this technique was everything I was searching for and needed, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.920 not not you know, not in terms of just like physicality, 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:43.280 but emotionally and intellectually. Uh. There were so many things 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:49.440 as a young person that I was not what's the 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.080 word I'm looking for. I hadn't evolved in the way 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:54.960 that I think I needed to at that point because 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.440 of what I had been exposed to in my young life, 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.800 and ballet kind of allowed me to like speed up 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:03.760 and catch up to where I needed to be in 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:08.320 so many ways, and that's like the beauty of art. 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.760 Yeah, well, I can one hundred percent, uh relate to 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.240 one piece of that, and that is that I remember, 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.400 I've actually talked about it on the show before, but 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:26.080 that the first time that I got into an acting class. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:31.000 You know, I was probably about twelve or something, and 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.760 you know, preteen, and you know, trying to be cool 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.440 and trying to be tough and you know, trying to 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.240 be a boy and do all that stuff. And it 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:46.400 was so freeing to me because I could be vulnerable, 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:50.920 I could be I found it, whether I even knew 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.280 this word, I found it immediately therapeutic. So it wasn't 0:08:55.400 --> 0:09:01.320 just the creation of the part or the art. It 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:06.680 was actually something that was whether I wasn't even cognizant 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.400 of it, but I think I really needed it to 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:15.160 help me get through these those years, which are you know, 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.160 they are tough years in any situation. So it sounds 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.560 like it gave you something that was pretty deep and 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:22.360 profound on a personal level. 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.440 It Yeah, yeah, I mean so much of what you're saying. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.840 I mean, it definitely was therapeutic. It also gave me 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.439 this sense of stability and structure that I had never experienced. 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.160 There's a lot of chaos and moving around in my 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:41.480 childhood and to have something that I come to, I 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.520 know it's going to be there every day, I don't know. 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:45.559 It was like three point thirty my ballet class, and 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.240 I knew exactly what we're going to do, the structure 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:49.719 of the class. We're going to start with Pia's, go 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.200 to Tandi's and Degachts and Fondi's, and you know, there's 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:57.000 this consistency that's built that becomes almost like a meditation 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.440 that allowed my body just to like release and relax. 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:08.440 I was such a tense, nervous child because of that 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.280 lack of stability and not knowing if there was going 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.040 to be food on the table or a roof over 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.280 our heads, and there was something that ballet just gave 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.920 me this this sense of safety. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:26.520 Almost have you ever in retrospect questioned or or wondered 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:32.200 about ballet in terms of those those things in terms 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.040 of a child, you know, having such a rigorous schedule, 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:41.880 having such a difficult, uh you know, physically difficult workload 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.520 to accomplish every day, being in the spotlight, all those 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.719 kinds of things, I mean it's kind of like the 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.600 question of, you know, would you let your kid play football? 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.920 You know, I mean, do you have you ever questioned 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.200 any of those things as you've grown up or or 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:57.720 lived your life or had this career. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:00.520 No, I really haven't. 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:05.200 I feel I feel very fortunate because of the teachers 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:10.400 that I've had. I know, those teachers that aren't nurturing 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:16.600 and that perpetuate the trauma they've experienced, and I don't 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.360 feel that I had that experience, which is so rare 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.200 in the ballet world, you know. But I had an 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:29.400 environment that was very nurturing and that allowed me to 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.040 feel like, this is fun, this is something I want 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:32.800 to return to. 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.160 I enjoyed the challenge. 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.520 And it just felt like beauty to me. It didn't 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:40.679 feel like you know, I think people think of it 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.240 often think of discipline a discipline in. 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:45.240 Like a negative way. 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:53.560 I would absolutely put my son in ballet, and I 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:55.880 you know, I mean, this was the reason for starting 0:11:56.040 --> 0:12:00.640 the Misty Copland Foundation and starting our signature program. Be 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.760 Bold was with this idea that when you remove all 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:09.680 of the stuff at its core, ballet is so good. 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:11.439 There's so many. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.120 Incredible tools that you can take into all areas of 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.120 your life. You know, it's not just about becoming a 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:21.960 professional dancer, you know, it's it's being exposed to the 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:23.880 to the rigor, to the joy. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.319 To the music, to the discipline. 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.720 You know, so many things that you get from being 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:34.360 an athlete and an artist, and it's really combined in ballet. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:35.840 How old is your son? 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.800 He is almost eighteen months. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.120 Eighteen months, Okay, so he's probably not dancing yet, although 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.760 maybe I don't know he is. He is, Okay, so 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:46.200 there you go. 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.920 He is. 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.440 But this brings up a question that's always kind of 0:12:57.480 --> 0:12:59.400 amazed me, and you sort of alluded to it a 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.640 little bit. Becare as you said that you were a natural. 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.480 I mean, obviously if you were that much of a 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.480 prodigy at such a young age and such an accelerated, 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:14.600 you know, kind of career. You know, I'll go to 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:19.800 a of a wedding and look around and there'll be 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:25.160 people and I just can't even understand how they could 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.280 be so off about the way they move. I'm not 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.520 even talking about like, I'm not even talking about choices 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.200 of what kind of moves you're gonna do. I'm talking 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:40.160 about literal, like no idea that there is a beat 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.760 like no idea, not even talking about clapping on the 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:48.160 one in the three. I'm talking about like you'd literally 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.640 not hearing that there's any kind of rhythm to And 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.680 I wonder if there's if that is a nature nurture thing. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.960 I mean, I literally, I'm not I'm not a great dancer, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.080 but from the time I was a little kid, I 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:09.800 could dance. Yeah, I mean I could. I'm I'm I'm not, 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.800 I'm not skilled whatever, but I can definitely hear with 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.080 the thing is supposed to be? What? What? What? What's 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.120 your feeling about that. I've never spoken to a ballet 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:20.880 dancer about that. 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.840 So I'm a believer that anything is possible. 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.080 Okay, I don't. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:28.880 I do. 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.320 I think that it may not look the way. 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:37.040 That you you imagine it should look, but there's possibility 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:41.960 in growth if someone is exposed to it and and taught. 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.080 I mean, I've seen it. I've seen it happen. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.480 I've seen dancers that have grown immensely, like you know, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.600 with the right focus and intention and nurturing people that 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.920 you know, it's like, I don't know if there's any 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.040 potential there, and then you know, I don't know how 0:14:58.160 --> 0:14:59.680 many years later, but I do. 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:01.760 I think it's possible, and you believe it. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.560 It can all be taught. It can all be taught. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.400 I don't know about all, but I think that everyone 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.479 can learn to dance to like the best of their ability. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:17.120 But there can't there can be something learned and improvement made. Yeah. 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:22.160 So yeah, so everyone right now, get up, put on 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.360 Mariah Carey, yes, and get to. 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.280 You have if you have a body, If you have 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:30.480 a body, you can dance. 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.440 Well. Listen, I mean your heart beats in rhythm, right, 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.760 your heart's beat in rhythm. It should it should be 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.160 a natural it should be a natural thing. I was 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.080 reading that. I was reading that you performed. Did you 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.520 perform with Taylor Swift? 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:47.600 Yes? 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:53.480 That's wild, It was really Yeah, it was really an. 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:58.560 Incredible experience to perform with someone not only that you know, 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:05.680 talent and successful, but that's so gracious and grounded, that's 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:10.520 always like in a different way, in a different way, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.080 in a different way. I mean, Prince I you know, 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.920 that's one of the closest collaborations that I've had with 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.800 another artist, and spent many many years working with him 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.600 on and off, and he just had such a confidence 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.000 and a way about him, and I think that a 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.080 lot of people didn't realize was how much he gave 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:36.960 back and mentored and was constantly looking for, you know, 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.600 someone young and up and coming that he could kind 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.320 of take under his wing. I didn't find this out 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.840 until after he had passed, but that he had been 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:52.240 following my career since I was about fourteen or fifteen 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:52.800 years old. 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:53.080 Wo. 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.760 Yeah, we ended. 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.200 Up collaborating for the first time. I think when I 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.360 was around twenty six twenty seven. He had been trying 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.360 to contact me and had been following my career. But 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.920 he's that way with a lot of young artists, and 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.040 it's amazing to be able to have access to someone 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:15.240 like him, with his experience and incredible gifts, and to 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.680 get to be on stage and perform with and see 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.800 it firsthandow and learn from a genius. So I I, 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.040 you know, attribute a lot of my growth as an 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.119 artist to the time that we spent working together. 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.080 Did you have a mentor was that with mentorship important? 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.480 I mean to you when you're when you're. 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.480 Coming up, Yeah, absolutely. 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.080 I Mean what's so interesting is that it's really built 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:46.480 in to the to the ballet structure, you know, so 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:51.840 much of the choreography and kind of notes and things 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:57.320 like that aren't really documented in writing, so a lot 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.840 of what we what we learn is pasted literally from 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.320 one mouth to the next. And so there's this kind 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:05.920 of built it in mentorship within the structure of how 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:12.080 how a ballet company or school works. And so my 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.520 first ballet teacher was definitely like that for me, and 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.600 it just became something that was natural for me to 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:20.840 kind of seek out. 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.280 Or be open to the idea of guidance. 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:28.560 Victoria Ral was probably one of the first people that 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.200 really took me under her wing. Actress, soap opera actress, 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.719 and she actually started out as a as a ballerina 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:41.120 at American Ballet Theater and Uh, to have someone who 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.560 has walked in those in my shoes, you know, as 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.920 a black woman in a ballet company where you don't 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.199 see anyone who looks like you like it was just 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.200 meant a lot just to sit down and see her, 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.280 hear the stories, have these conversations, and it's it's been 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.160 such a big part of my journey is just having 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:00.920 the mentors in my life. 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:05.639 The first black prima ballerina in the history of ABT 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.639 which American ballet theater, which is something amazing to be 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.159 to be so proud of it only took them seventy 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:19.440 five years, but but you were it, and that's quite 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:25.600 an accomplishment. You know, you mentioned something which is fascinating 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.159 to me, and that is that, well, there's two pieces 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.879 of it. I mean back to I guess football is 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.000 on my mind, but back to you know, athletes they 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:40.280 use their bodies and they have to you know, sacrifice 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.760 their bodies in those kinds of ways. But what's going 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:48.679 on in their face? Maybe in baseball, but it is 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:55.119 basically not the story. It's all about this machine, whereas 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:02.200 in ballet that's a big, big piece. Is this lack 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.960 of a better word, acting component, you know, the emotional component. 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.240 It's not just you know, how well you hear the 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.359 music of portraiteaus or how high you leap any of 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:17.600 those things. And my question is you've performed, you know, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:24.760 countless ballets that are choreographed, and the choreography I don't 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.320 even know if this is true, but it's written down correct, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.040 like there's an actual notation or there's a way to 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.399 write it, like there is music of what the choreography is. Yes, 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.760 but are you how to what extent can you make choices? 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.119 So like the whole thing is is, you know, I 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:45.720 get a characters written down a page, but then it's 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.119 all about the choices that I make, and maybe the 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.720 choices that I make between take one and Take four, 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.399 or also that if I'm doing a play, the choices 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:56.520 that I'm gonna make on a Tuesday night or a 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.400 Wednesday afternoon change all the time. So I'm wondering, when 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:01.760 you're in the in the heat of it, how much 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:03.360 are those choices you're allowed to make. 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.160 Yeah, that's a great question. So there is dance notation, 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:13.520 but it's like such a rare art and we rarely 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:15.359 use it. But again, like I was saying, it's literally 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.639 just passed down from uh, from dancer to dancer and 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.159 whoever is whoever owns the ballet and sets the ballet, 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:23.920 so they literally sit you. 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.680 In a room and dance from there. 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.320 Well, the choreographer is long long dead, so with a 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.000 lot of these ballets, so it's really passed on from 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.639 like ballerina to like that's that you know, it was 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:38.320 it was created on them and then it was passed 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.520 on to another ballerina to another Valerias. It's literally handed 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:46.560 down like that. But within that so you're you're taught 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.280 exact choreography that you have to do. Like there's there's 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:55.240 no real wiggle room within these, you know, ballets that 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.480 were created in like the late eighteen hundreds. But when 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.320 it comes to care, sure, like you do have a 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:07.199 choice in how you approach certain things. Also depending on 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.600 who's setting the ballet. So there are some some uh 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.440 former dancers that will come and have kind of ownership 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.240 over what the ballet will look like and and they 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.040 don't really give you a lot of space. But for 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:25.400 me personally, I have often done a lot of research 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:31.600 outside of the ballet company and gotten coaching in terms 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:35.240 of like theater acting outside of American Ballet theater, and 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:39.240 will make choices in the moment on stage when it's 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:40.919 too late for anyone to say anything to me. 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:45.400 Yeah, I like I like because there's no take too, 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.359 there's no take. That's that's that's the way to be. 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:53.960 I like I like that a lot. That's that's that's awesome. 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.399 Tell me about the Flowers movie. I mean, you're you 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:59.679 have you I love me just say You're doing so 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:05.359 many other things besides dancing films and books, and I 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.120 think children's books as well, and yeah, you know, all 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:12.119 kinds of the charitable work which we're going to get into. 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:15.160 But I'm curious about the Flowers movie. 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:18.399 Yeah, I mean it's a great segue in terms of 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.560 what we were just talking about, because what's been so 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.440 fascinating stepping into this space. So I have a production 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:26.560 company that I started with my best friend who is 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:27.480 a former ballerino. 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:28.960 We met at American Ballet. 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:32.439 Theater and she transitioned after only a year of dancing 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:37.000 professionally into writing and producing in television and that's what 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.280 she's been doing for almost twenty years. And so we 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:42.320 created this production company and. 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.160 To transition into being creative. 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:49.639 In this space, you know, I have so much I 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:52.720 have to take much more initiative, and I have much 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:58.840 more agency and creative power and freedom in a way that. 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.399 Like I never experienced in my field. 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:05.280 So with this, this is our first project that really 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:06.400 has come to fruition. 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:07.760