Misty Copeland famous quotes

The path to your success is not as fixed and inflexible as you think.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Path #Fixed

Success is not easy and I think everyone should know that hard work and perseverance and being open to giving back are so much more powerful than stepping all over people to get to the top.
-- Misty Copeland

#Perseverance #Powerful #Hard Work

You can do anything you want, even if you are being told negative things.stay strong and find motivation
-- Misty Copeland

#Stay Strong #Motivation #Want

My body is very different from most of the dancers I dance with. My hair is different than most I dance with. But I didn't let that stop me. Black girls rock and can be ballerinas.
-- Misty Copeland

#Girl #Hair #Rocks

Some people even think that I'm still just not right for it [ballet]. And I think it's shocking because they hear those words from critics saying I'm too bulky, I'm too busty. And then they meet me in person and they're like, you look like a ballerina. And I think it's just something maybe that I will never escape from, those people who are narrow-minded. But my mission, my voice, my story, my message, is not for them. And I think it's more important to think of the people that I am influencing and helping to see a broader picture of what beauty is.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Voice #People

I just try to approach every opportunity on stage, as if it's my first time and my last time.
-- Misty Copeland

#Opportunity #Trying #Lasts

I never knew I wanted to become a ballerina. I was discovered at the age of 13. I had a love for movement even though I had no exposure to dance other than what I saw in music videos, like hip-hop music videos. But I knew that I loved moving.
-- Misty Copeland

#Moving #Hip Hop #Age

I don't believe in dieting, I don't believe in having certain moments in your life where you're healthy and then moments when you're like, "I'm going to eat whatever I want." It's just finding what works for your body and always eating healthy.
-- Misty Copeland

#Believe #Healthy #Body

Those people that don't see the power in art maybe have never been a part of an art, in a real way. To experience it, and to see and witness how it affects people, we're not doing it just to create professionals. It's to add another dimension to the way that children think and the way they experience certain things. If you didn't have dance, music and singing, it just seems so odd to me.
-- Misty Copeland

#Art #Children #Real

I think anything that affects me in my personal life is going to help me be a better artist on stage.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Artist #Helping

There are muscles that we have in our feet that most human beings don't even know that we have. The strength that we have is so detailed.
-- Misty Copeland

#Feet #Muscles #Humans

I had no idea what I was walking into, and the years and years of hard work it would take. I felt like an outsider and like it was never going to happen. But even if I would have known, I think I still would have done it. Dancers are perfectionists, and that's what keeps us going and growing.
-- Misty Copeland

#Hard Work #Thinking #Years

Even if I weren't learning new roles and getting the opportunity to be coached by incredible people, I still think I would be so excited to have an opportunity to continue to push myself and grow, as an artist.
-- Misty Copeland

#Opportunity #Thinking #Artist

Going on stage and transcending the audience and becoming this otherworldly thing makes you a dancer. It's not so black and white.
-- Misty Copeland

#Black And White #Dancer #Becoming

I do think that it's a responsibility when there are so few of us as African Americans to kind of get to that place of success in a positive light. We should take a stance and stand for something and use that platform for positivity.
-- Misty Copeland

#Responsibility #Positivity #Thinking

Ballet found me. I was discovered by a teacher in middle school. I always danced, my whole life. I never had any training, never was exposed to seeing dance, but I always had something inside of me.
-- Misty Copeland

#Teacher #School #Ballet

To be an artist and to be recognized by another artist who is, you know, just something you can't even put into words, someone that is so far beyond what the normal human being experience is in terms of creativity and originality. That was kind of a moment where I thought wow maybe I do have something more that makes me special.
-- Misty Copeland

#Creativity #Artist #Special

I learned how to communicate and articulate myself from ballet. It's just insane to me, when they don't think of that as a part of our education.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Ballet #Insane

Meeting Raven Wilkinson and having her as a mentor, it was that kind of support from the generations that came before me that helped to lift me up and give me the confidence to then be able to give back and bring other minorities with me on this journey.
-- Misty Copeland

#Journey #Ravens #Giving

My career came together very quickly. I only trained for four years before I became a professional, so I didn't have a lot of time to sit back and be inspired before I took my first ballet class.
-- Misty Copeland

#Class #Careers #Years

For me, I was in school and I pushed myself to be a good student, just because that's the type of person I was, but I never had a connection to any of it. I don't think my brain functioned in a way that was at its height, when I was in school. I needed something like art to really value the way my mind works. I wasn't reaching my full potential by sitting in a classroom and reading from a book. My mind didn't work that way.
-- Misty Copeland

#Art #Book #Reading

I think most people don't really understand all that it takes to stand on your toes, and to be able to jump and land without any noise, or for a male dancer to be able to lift a girl. All of these things look so effortless, but there's an attention to detail and years of training, as well as being able to transform into a character and being able to meld all of those things together.
-- Misty Copeland

#Girl #Character #Thinking

It's difficult to exist as a woman, especially I think as a powerful woman. You want to stand strong and you want to be considered and equal.
-- Misty Copeland

#Strong #Powerful #Thinking

It's really amazing that I was discovered and that I've been given these great opportunities to travel the world and work with amazing artists. I'm very blessed.
-- Misty Copeland

#Blessed #Opportunity #Artist

I think that training is the key, definitely, and I devoted my life to it.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Keys #Training

I feel like I represent every young dancer, and even non-dancer, who felt they were not accepted by the ballet world. I'd like to think that they can see themselves in me.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Dancer #Ballet

But I think the more you eat healthy clean foods the more you create them.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Healthy

I absolutely love what I do, and I want to dance for as long as I can and feel good about what I'm putting out there on the stage. But my goal has always been to be a principal dancer with ABT. Before I knew that there'd never been a black woman that was always my goal. I wanted to dance "Odette-Odile" and Kitri in "Don Quixote" and Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty." So that's still my goal. But knowing that it's never been done before I think makes me fight even harder.
-- Misty Copeland

#Sleep #Fighting #Thinking

Just as a child, before I ever knew what ballet was, there was something in me where I was always searching for something structured, something that was bigger than me, and something so historical that I could be a part of. I didn't find that until I stepped into the ballet world, and it was overwhelming, the feeling of being a part of something that's bigger than you.
-- Misty Copeland

#Children #Ballet #Feelings

When you see the body outside of a costume and see the strength that it takes, people would look at dance a different way and see how athletic it is. You're not just born like that.
-- Misty Copeland

#People #Athletic #Different

To have a platform like So You Think You Can Dance, where you're reaching this audience that's been created over the 10 years that they've been on the air. People who didn't know anything about dance and aren't going to go to the theater are learning about it, even if it's ballroom and jazz, by just turning their television ono. They're building this audience that's advanced and educated enough to introduce them to ballet.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Air #Years

I'm definitely very careful about the things that I want to be a part of, but it's also important for me to get dance out there to more people.
-- Misty Copeland

#People #Important #Want

Ballet.something pure in this crazy world
-- Misty Copeland

#Crazy #Ballet #World

I know that I'll forever be involved in ballet. This is where my life was meant to be, and I don't see myself straying completely away, ever.
-- Misty Copeland

#Forever #Ballet #Were Meant To Be

Hopefully, I'll be a part of ABT, in some way, forever. I think I'll always be a part of ballet and try to push diversity, for as long as I live.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Diversity #Long

I've gotten nothing but warmth from the Black community and positive feedback.
-- Misty Copeland

#Community #Black #Feedback

When I was younger, my feet would hurt a lot, but you build up calluses and strength and you don't feel as much pain there.
-- Misty Copeland

#Hurt #Pain #Feet

The fact that I was African American was never addressed, and that allowed me to just be a student, like anyone else. I was not aware of how rare it was to be an African American, how rare it was to have four years of training under my belt, and how, even though I could imitate people and fake it, unprepared I was to become a professional.
-- Misty Copeland

#Years #People #Fake

I haven’t come from the typical path or background of someone who would make it to this level as a ballerina. When it came to my childhood-growing up in a single-parent home, often struggling financially-my mother definitely instilled in me and my siblings this strength, this will, to just continue to survive and succeed.
-- Misty Copeland

#Mother #Growing Up #Sibling

You can dream big and it doesn't matter what you look like, where you come from.
-- Misty Copeland

#Dream #Where You Come #Matter

I want to share the ballet world with everyone.
-- Misty Copeland

#Ballet #Want #World

Physical fears change and shift depending on the role and depending on the mindset I'm in.
-- Misty Copeland

#Ballet #Roles #Mindset

A lot of people think, "Oh I'm going to eat whatever I want and then go to the gym." And I've definitely been one of those people and it just doesn't give me the results that I need to have the physique of a ballerina.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Giving #People

What makes people and companies and artistic directors and choreographers interested in working with dancers is the ability to kind of let go of everything you think you know and be a blank canvas.
-- Misty Copeland

#Letting Go #Thinking #People

That it's possible to do positive things and I think that's how we're going to set an example to be respected as women in the world.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Example #World

I definitely like to be natural and more relaxed and not wear a lot of makeup.
-- Misty Copeland

#Makeup #Natural #Relaxed

I just want to leave a positive memory of setting an example and bringing our youth with us.
-- Misty Copeland

#Memories #Want #Example

It takes a lot of money to be a part of the ballet world. Both the training and the supplies are expensive, the shoes, the leotards and the tights.
-- Misty Copeland

#Shoes #Ballet #Training

I think I'm pretty laid back. I like cooking, being at home, and going to concerts. And I love to shop!
-- Misty Copeland

#Home #Thinking #Cooking

Ballet was exactly what I was searching for, but my environment definitely made me the dancer and the person that I am today. And the Hip-Hop culture was a big part of it.
-- Misty Copeland

#Hip Hop #Dancer #Ballet

I think I always felt a connection to music and to movement. Growing up, I was surrounded by R&B and Hip-Hop, and the closest thing I could find to dance was gymnastics which I watched on TV.
-- Misty Copeland

#Growing Up #Gymnastics #Thinking

The word "prodigy" was thrown around a lot, but I didn't understand what that meant, or the weight of it. It didn't really mean anything to me, until I was older and could look back on it.
-- Misty Copeland

#Mean #Looks #Weight

I think that I'm so fortunate to have found classical ballet. It completely changed my life and it shaped the person that I am today, on and off the stage.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Ballet #Today

Just to get into a company like ABT is a dream come true, but to have all of these opportunities on top of it, I don't think it will hit me until I'm 70. I'll be like, "Oh, my god, remember that amazing life you had?" It's an incredible honor to be a part of something like ABT.
-- Misty Copeland

#Dream #Opportunity #Thinking

Everything I was being shown was ABT, so I grew up watching these videos of [Mikhail] Baryshnikov, Gelsey [Kirkland] and Paloma [Herrera]. Paloma and Angel [Corella] were the first people I ever saw dance live.
-- Misty Copeland

#Angel #People #Video

Going on stage and doing ballet, for the first time, was even more verification of, "This is what I'm meant to do. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make it somehow."
-- Misty Copeland

#Ballet #Firsts #Stage

I don't think a lot of people really understand the commitment it takes to being a character that an actor in Hollywood would take to approaching a role that they're doing.
-- Misty Copeland

#Character #Commitment #Thinking

Once I became a professional, maybe 19 or 20, I really started to try to figure out who I was, as a woman and as an individual.
-- Misty Copeland

#Trying #Individual #Figures

I never experienced getting nervous on stage. I think I was most comfortable there.
-- Misty Copeland

#Thinking #Nervous #Stage

I'm a classical ballet dancer, and at the end of the day I want to be with American Ballet Theater, performing classical ballets.
-- Misty Copeland

#Dancer #Ballet #The End Of The Day