Misty Copeland: Power and Grace

• Misty Copeland is a wildly popular and influential 32-year-old ballet dancer. • One of very few African American ballet dancers and now principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. • Named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015. • Her Under Armour commercial has been viewed 8 million times online. • She has a half million followers on Twitter. • She danced with legendary pop star Prince. • Misty began ballet at 13 years (old for a beginner) at Boys and Girls Club. • Powerful and graceful but physically different than typical ballet dancers5’2 and muscular—it took only three months for Misty to dance on her toes (where it usually takes beginners three years.) • Photographer Richard Corman has been capturing poignant moments of human triumph for over three decades. ROLLING STONE refers to his photographs as “iconic.” Documentarian Ken Burns says Corman’s versatile body of work is an “artistic vision dedicated to the highest aspirations of human endeavor . . . the photographs record in big moments and small, among the famous and ordinary, the gifted and challenged, larger truths relevant to all of us.” • Corman has worked with: Nobel Peace Prize recipients Nelson Mandela and Elie Wiesel; actors such as Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Daniel Craig; elite athletes who inspire greatness, like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan; and writers and artists like Kurt Vonnegut, Basquiat, and Naguchi. • Misty’s memoir is LIFE IN MOTION written with Charisse Jones. • Misty’s children’s book is FIREBIRD illustrated by Christopher Myers. (Winner of the 2015 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, 2015 Ezra Jack Keats Book Award New Writer Honor, NPR Best Book of 2014, Amazon Best Book of 2014 – Ages 6–8, Amazon Best Book of the Month, September 2014, ESSENCE Magazine Best Children’s Book of 2014, starred reviews in BOOKLIST and SHELF AWARENESS.