As long as I’m in the Hip Hop Music Mood, or Mode, whichever you prefer, I might as well be in the Hip Hop Dance Mood. Whatever, the divine Misty Copeland – a super star of the American Ballet Theatre – struts her sublime dance stuff to the sublime Kendrick Lamar.
Ms. Copeland is particularly in the news these days because she will become, for what it’s worth, and it’s worth quite a bit, the first African American dancer to perform the dual roles of Odette Odile in Swan Lake at the Metropolitan Opera House next month.
Misty is a rather unusual dancer. Her body – size, build, height, musculature, all of it – not to mention her skin color, don’t fit the usual Balanchine “skinny ballet body” ideal. Nothing about her is traditional or expected. But I’m not going to tell you anymore, because you should just watch her dance.
Here are a few things to get you hooked. Read then watch. Or watch then read. Whichever you prefer.
An Unlikely Ballerina: The Rise of Misty Copeland:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/unlikely-ballerina
Misty Copeland: I will what I want:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY0cdXr_1MA
A Day in the Life of Misty Copeland:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-misty-copeland-1432827688?mod=trending_now_2
If Misty Copeland’s body is ‘wrong,’ I don’t want to be ‘right:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/08/05/misty_copeland_the_abt_ballerina_has_a_new_under_armour_ad_and_is_amazing.html
#MistyCopeland #KendrickLamar #OdetteOdile #ABT #HipHopBallet
May 29, 2015 at 12:52 am
Holy hell so bad ass!!
May 29, 2015 at 1:28 am
What? Me understated Mz Maau? I oughta have majored in hyperbole. And no kidding Bill Davis. Bad ass ballerina. I like that.
May 29, 2015 at 1:32 am
I’m past the point where I should be eliminating “bad ass” from my lexicon but I couldn’t muster the courage to say “that shit is dope “…..
May 29, 2015 at 1:39 am
Bill Davis a friend of mine who is a “bad ass” master teacher in Columbus, Ohio, recently made me quite happy by sending me an article that says that People Who Say ‘F*ck’ A Lot Are Hotter And Healthier. Here tis. Curse up a storm. (P.S. I understand Carole Lombard had a truck driver’s mouth.) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625581/Swearing-emotional-creative-language-say-researchers-claim-GOOD-you.html
http://distractify.com/beth-buczynski/dont-you-wish-your-girlfriend-could-curse-like-me/
May 29, 2015 at 5:40 am
Amazing dancer! What huge control.
May 29, 2015 at 6:42 am
#vimeo
May 29, 2015 at 7:30 am
Wow!
May 29, 2015 at 9:06 am
What is the original performance in the video?
May 29, 2015 at 11:07 am
Drop dead fabulous, both the dancing and the music. Brilliant idea to put the two together.
May 29, 2015 at 12:34 pm
Thank you all. I see you Edward Morbius!
May 29, 2015 at 2:09 pm
Found it! Here’s the original:
Choreography By Marcelo Gomes
Gala De Ballet “Despertares” 2012 Mexico City.
Dancer: Misty Copeland
https://youtu.be/T-n9Ti0V8mI
May 29, 2015 at 2:30 pm
Her movements are so precise and mesmerizing. Great find Giselle Minoli
May 29, 2015 at 3:28 pm
You are awesome Donald Lee. Now…wouldn’t it be nice if I could add that video and have it appear as a Photo Video with a Play button rather than as a link? Hmmmmm Google+? It came to me through VIMEO (obviously).
Matthew Graybosch you are right and it is African American dance troupes that have broken through that narrow-minded mold. George Balanchine may have been a genius, but it doesn’t mean that he didn’t suffer from his own biases, his own prejudices, his own inability to see beyond his own comfort zone. It took people like Arthur Mitchell to break through at nonsense: http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3515
And it took people like Pina Bausch, the brilliant German choreographer and dancer to put women with breasts and hips and thighs on stage and let them move, to break through that nonsense: http://www.pina-bausch.de/en/pina_bausch/
And it took Alvin Ailey who choreographed “Cry” for Judith Jamison, to change that nonsense: (Judith Jamison, The Kennedy Center Honors, narrated by Morgan Freeman)
And it took Martha Graham, the pioneer and legend in modern dance, employing Mary Hinkson: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/arts/dance/-mary-hinkson-a-star-for-martha-graham-dies-at-89.html
I could go on and on and on Matthew Graybosch and it makes me terribly sad for American culture that more people do not know of the extraordinary talents of these incredible human beings.
And you know why? Because on television it is ALL SPORTS ALL THE TIME BECAUSE IT IS BIG MONEY.
Dancing is not big money. Our priorities are upside down and sideways.
I have said it many times before and I will continue to say it: IF EVERY BOY AND GIRL WERE TO LEARN TO DANCE, FEWER PEOPLE WOULD BE IN THERAPY, THERE WOULD BE MORE LOVE, LESS WAR AND FAR MORE PEACE.
May 29, 2015 at 4:08 pm
Plato, the Ancient Greek Philosopher, was of the opinion that Dance should be a core part of the education of young children.
May 29, 2015 at 4:29 pm
Richard Durham a personal (true) story that will hopefully make you laugh and smile the big smille: I went to St.John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is one of the oldest Liberal Arts colleges in the country, non-sectarian, non-denominational, named after St. John’s College, Cambridge University. You start with ancient history and work your way forward: four years of philosophy, math, literature, science, language and some music. But no dance or art.
I started dancing when I was six (Modern) and segued late to ballet. When I matriculated as a Freshwoman, I also enrolled in dance class “downtown” and was dismayed to discover that I had a math class early in the morning on the same days as my dance class.
I marched into the Dean’s office (not knowing at the time that he would also be my evening seminar leader) and he asked me what I wanted and I told him I needed my schedule changed because i had a conflict with a dance class early in the morning. He rather glared at me over his eyeglasses from across his desk and said, “Miss Minoli (we used our surnames at that school), you did not came to St. John’s to study dance. You came to St. John’s to study Math and everything else on our program.”
I said, “Yes, but you see if I don’t take a dance class I can’t concentrate and think in a Math class.” We stared at one another. He asked to see my schedule and he changed it.
Years after I had graduated, I went back to the campus to visit and found him in the coffee shop playing chess. I sat down next to him and when his game was finished he told me that he had taken his wife (who was an opera singer!) to Albuquerque to see Martha Graham’s troupe and he said, “It really is extraordinary to see a dancer fly through the air and land on the boards to the best isn’t it?” I smiled. And he said, “Rather mathematical, don’t you think?”
True story.
And I took dance classes all the way through college and have ever since.
I can’t imagine my life without it. Plato was/is right!
May 29, 2015 at 4:30 pm
You are very kind Steve shaffer. Although clearly there are those who think the world would be better off without Hip Hop, I am NOT one of them. 🙂
May 29, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Matthew Graybosch our country/our culture have a lot of problems/issues in this arena. On the one hand, certain people loathe the foul language that comes with some of Hip Hop, yet we tolerate the physical crimes against people that Hip Hop artists rap about.
On the one hand we loathe the violence of football, while on the other we deny having to deal with Alzheimer’s and dementia, caused not just by sports, but by a lot of other things.
On the one hand we loathe any restrictions of our so-called “freedoms,” yet we tolerate the guns that land in the hands of young men to mentally ill to function in society without being violent.
On the one hand we pretend to be empathetic to mental illness, but we look the other way at the death penalty and punishments that sweep mental illness under the rug for another generation to deal with.
On the one hand we canonize sports “heros,” and shrug our shoulders at deflators and steroid users (thank you Lance, thank you A-Rod), while we vilify heroin and the drugs of the street.
Ballet is beautiful…but there are eating disorders everywhere within the discipline…we love “skinny” and our young women suffer from body issues.
We like the military, defending ourselves and our Democracy, but we call other people “violent.”
And we don’t fund the arts. We don’t fund dance, theatre, poetry, literature, music…anything that will bring about conversation, communication, understanding and healing.
That is left to the artists. As it has been through the centuries.
I say Dance! Write! Rap! Sing! Act! Paint! Sculpt! Design!
And share it all. Share it all. Share it all.
May 29, 2015 at 7:14 pm
OMG Richard Durham am I now remembering that we had that conversation a long time ago and I asked if you were a pilot like me because I saw a plane on your profile page? Did I make that up? Forgive me for not remembering every detail.
Yes…GREAT place to go to school. And BTW, the man of whom I spoke (I graduated long before you did) was Dean Robert Neidorf. Brilliant man. We were all scared of him.
Yes…ballroom. Me, too. I think as adults men and women make their way to ballroom because it is so romantic, there are such manners within it, it is so beautiful and you learn so much about yourself and your partner from the discipline of it.
Did you live on campus in the dorms or off-campus. And also, BTW…I worked for István Fehérváry when I was a Freshman. It was my student work study/financial aid job the first year I was there.
May 29, 2015 at 8:56 pm
Giselle Minoli now that you mention it – yes that might have been you. I’ve had similar discussions with other people about St John’s before, and about if I’m a pilot! I do seem to keep running into Johnnies on G+! 🙂
I enjoyed Ballroom at St John’s, but lately I’ve been wondering about taking a modern dance class – something a bit more free form.
I’ve done various martial arts over the years but I’ve stated to think that dancing is a better way to get to know ones body and to simply be better at being a person.
I lived on campus. In fact my last 2 years were in the, then, new buildings at the top of the hill.
You worked for István ? He was still teaching fencing while I was there. I had wanted to learn, but I’m not a morning person and his fencing classes all started early. Helped weed out lazy people, and it worked with me! 🙂
I worked in the first Computer Lab, and ended up, with a friend, doing an economic impact survey for the college as my junior year work study job. It was a lot of fun demonstrating, with good data and math, that St John’s was of greater economic value to Santa Fe than Walmart was!
Thank you for the trip down memory lane Gisselle!
May 30, 2015 at 2:59 pm
XzzNx X
June 14, 2015 at 11:54 pm
Mz Maau ther4edee3
June 26, 2015 at 1:36 pm
I . bunch g CBGB eee ed BC y
July 1, 2015 at 4:58 am
The beauteous Misty Copeland becomes principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre at age 32, after having been a soloist for 14 years! I hope the roses never stop falling at her feet. A great day for the ballet world. Congratulations Misty!
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/arts/dance/misty-copeland-is-promoted-to-principal-dancer-at-american-ballet-theater.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region
July 13, 2015 at 4:30 am
Sounds like a lyric to me Steve shaffer. Thank you. I can feel it. I can see it. I can hear it…
July 24, 2015 at 1:09 pm
That is awesomeness
February 16, 2016 at 1:12 am
The awesome Kendrick Lamar just won Best Rap album at the Grammy’s. Awesome.
February 16, 2016 at 9:29 am
He should have won Album of the Year.
February 16, 2016 at 9:51 pm
Meg L Hello. I am a huge fan of Kendrick’s and thought his performance at the Grammys reflected an entirely different level of what it means to be a musician and explore the world and express oneself. I confess that I was rooting for him, but not because I don’t like Taylor Swift’s album. I haven’t listened to it! I respect the career she has created for herself, but I don’t listen to her music.
February 17, 2016 at 11:56 am
Giselle Minoli He’s absolutely brilliant, both as a rapper and galvaniser of social change. His writing is so tight and his flow sublime. I got so annoyed a few years ago when they gave the Grammy to Macklemore instead of Kendrick that I’ve boycotted the awards ever since. I did, however, check out Kendrick’s performance at this year’s Grammy’s. It was powerful, and exactly what that audience needed.
Talented as Taylor Swift is, I’m afraid I find her music froufrou, overproduced, and bland – and yes, I listened to enough of it so I could say that : )
Have your heard our Kate’s latest?
https://plus.google.com/+MegLocsin/posts/L8MJ2C9zW2d
February 17, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Yes, Meg L it is a strange thing isn’t it, the white (man’s) world’s resistance to, lack of understanding about, fear of hiphop. To my own ears it is poetry and painting and dance all wrapped up together, singing, moving, chanting, talking into my ears about things ancient history, the past, the present, the future, love, angry, sorrow, beauty, people, humanity, inhumanity. What’s the difference between that and The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Bhagavad Gita, The Mahabharata?
Not at all surprised that Hamilton won…but when is The White Male Grammy Committee going to step out of their box and realize that they are color blind? I’m not going to hold my breath. It is everywhere…in television, in music, in the theatre, in the movies, in life…and in dance, as Misty Copeland all too well knows…
February 17, 2016 at 5:55 pm
Giselle Minoli I love your description of the crazy, interconnected and very alive quilt that hiphop is.
In a recent argument with a rabid Kanye fan who reasoned that Kanye was a great artist based on the fact that he’s won 21 Grammys, I replied rather grumpily that the Grammys were the US music industry’s corporate circlejerk for easily impressed music fans. They’re really just a popularity contest for big name mainstream artists backed by big labels rather than an accurate barometer for true excellence and innovation in music. I’m delighted when artists like Kendrick, Snarky Puppy and Alabama Shakes win, but would be even happier if the academy started recognising phenomenal talents like Sharon Jones, Kamasi Washington and Mulatu Astatke. Were you aware there isn’t even a category for Soul Music in the Grammys? But there’s one for Contemporary Christian Music!
With art and politics being frogmarched down Corporate Avenue I’m afraid we are hurtling towards the Age of Blandness.
February 17, 2016 at 6:03 pm
I’m so with you Meg L. I didn’t know that there wasn’t a category for Soul Music. It’s such a frightened bunch of people, circling the wagons around themselves, terrified of what lurks out there in the dark. But this is like everything Meg L. It’s true in the writing world as well, which is very much dominated by male decision-makers, and it’s very much true about movies and television. There is nothing to watch on television, not much anyway, unless of course you want to tune into a show that is about short skirts and high heels (I have my own, thank you) and want to watch laughable sex scenes where the woman is always and forever being thrown up against a bookshelf or a bank of metal lockers or a stove or a table. Good grief it’s so boring it’s hard to even write about. And then there is a delicious little film, Carol, which no one saw because, well, it’s a love story between two women. Not Hollywood. Sigh. And so it goes. And we will find our own art and books and poetry and films and music…and life will go on.