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A Decade After Her Rise Misty Copeland Shifts The World of Ballet Once Again

 For maybe two months I’d have random moments of quick thoughts. Although quick, they were important. They were worth pondering in my mind because, whenever it actually came true, it’d mean things in dance, things in ballet are really changing. Those quick, repetitive thoughts were about the retirement of Misty Danielle Copeland.  Today was the today. Today is when I actually read the news. Although I’d been having thoughts of the inevitable, reading that NY Times headline made me feel more mentally prepared than I assumed. Allow me to explain. I recognize the retirement of Misty Copeland, just about on the heels of Gillian Murphy's, to be an announcement of a monumental shift in ballet. When I was a high school dancer, the most beautiful dancers— the dancers I looked up to, seemed to dance forever. While companies are looking younger and social media is hailing as a prominent stimulant to detect and experience true artistry, the turning of the tide is truly here.  I’ll b...
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Dance Is Not All of That Fluff

 Before dance is anything it is felt...

I ended my broadcast post with that sentence. As I searched for yet another way to express my passion and ever-blooming understanding of the art of dance, those words made me pause. I live in a world that uplift the integrity and regality of the profession and art of dance far beyond social media influence and casual connection. 

God is the sole author of every gift and wonderful experience this profession has brought into my life. Because it was given to me without any human influence, because I came into dance first by a divine passion from Heaven, I tend to be very extra when talking about it. I am aware of it but I will not change it and I can't. 

Today there are many different versions of dance as a career and even as a simple enjoyment. I, however will never be able to view dance separate from the intricacies that have caused legends to inspire us, history to be shaped and hearts to be forever changed. My lowest thoughts of dance still point to something as intense as "intentionality'. I have watched, rehearsed and judged (literally, I am a dance judge) quite a bit of dance and it never fails that my mind, while sitting back, searches for the deepest parts of what I am seeing at that moment. Perhaps that is part of my growing legacy in dance. I am the woman who sees no leisure touch points of the profession of dance. Even when it comes to training with the idea of becoming a professional, it all circulates the thought that dance is truly felt before it is anything else. 

I have talked about the woman who implanted the concept and understanding of dance in my mind when I was just thirteen years old. I saw that famous tilt jump photo of former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (legend) artist, Linda Celeste Sims and immediately, I mean, it was quite supernatural if you ask me. I knew exactly what it would take for me to be a professional dancer. That moment was so defining that it impacted the way I thought of dance and began to carry myself as a middle school dance student. Over the years that realization has avalanched into a woman with great insight and foresight in dance.

Its the kind of thing that makes me stand up for the truth in dance and help other dancers who want to be helped. This is truly such a beautiful part of my life. It is a part of me.

I feel dance in just about everything.

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