A Motel Room Floor, Then Ballet's Biggest Stage

Misty Copeland grew up poor, with her divorced mother and five siblings. The family moved often and eventually ended up in a motel in Gardena, California, where all of them shared two rooms. Forbes describes her sleeping on the motel floor while her mother worked several jobs to keep the family afloat. Copeland has called it just a really hard time and has said she was embarrassed by it. She practised ballet barre exercises on the motel balcony railing.

She was 13 when a school teacher noticed her fluid way of moving and suggested the after-school ballet programme at the Boys and Girls Club in San Pedro. Her first class took place on a basketball court, and she wore gym clothes and socks. Her instructor, Cindy Bradley, had to coax her down from the bleachers to join in. Bradley said Copeland had perfect feet and was naturally flexible, and she reached toe-shoe level in about three months, a stage that usually takes more than three years.

When the training became demanding, Bradley asked Copeland's mother to let the girl live with the Bradley family. Copeland spent almost three years in their San Pedro home before returning to her mother. At 15 she went to court seeking independence from her mother, but dropped the case after about two months and moved back home.

The following year she won a scholarship to the summer programme of American Ballet Theatre in New York, where its director, Kevin McKenzie, noticed her. She became the first Black woman named a principal dancer at the company and retired after a 25-year career. She has said she did not have the typical path people expect of a classical dancer.