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The Extraordinary Misty Copeland: Body, Heart and Mind in alignment
Last night, Tananarive and I had the honor of being seated in the BB row of the Pasadena Ambassador Auditorium to hear and see Misty Copeland, the first African-American principle dancer with a major American ballet company, the American Ballet Theater.
What a tiny, powerful, beautiful lady she is. And with amazing poise she OWNS her beauty and power, can speak about it with real clarity, in a way I’ve rarely seen. And for ninety riveting minutes, she spoke about her life, dreams, struggles, family life past and present, and her future plans. And one of the things that leapt out at me was that she WAS a swan, and had been an “Ugly Duckling.” Head too small, feet too large, introverted to near-paralysis. But she dreamed of finding her place in the world, a place where the specific characteristics that made her an outsider were PERFECT. Where she could step into her power and beauty to find her place in the world. Tananarive leaned over at one point and said: “her life is a movie.”
Yes. Because movies, and novels, are stories, and stories reflect life. While life continues, the truth is that we are an interwoven braid of stories, of events that have multiple meanings and purposes, and sometimes we are in OUR stories, and sometimes we are in someone else’s.
And power in life derives from being in YOUR story. That’s your primary path to beauty and power. A very brief way of looking at her life:
- CONFRONTED WITH CHALLENGE…