A Quote by Misty Copeland
I think that having a platform and having a voice to be seen by people beyond the classical ballet world has really been my power, I feel.
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I was so comfortable with my ballet power, my dancer power, that to have a voice, the comfort with having a voice, is slower to come to me.
Having been aware of the Red Sox since the 1946 World Series, having been growled at by Ted Williams as a young reporter in 1960, having been present at the horror of 1986 and the comeback of 2004, I have seen the highs and lows of some other people's favorite team.
I think that a huge positive that's come out of me having successful competitions as an athlete has been that, through the years it's become less and less about personal victory and more about strengthening a platform for me to have a voice in the world and I could really talk about anything I wanted to and I've chosen to make my voice be heard and be recognized for some of the charities that I really care about and work very closely with.
So many people report to be contemporary dancers, and they're not. They are sort of jazz dancers that feel like they're throwing a bit of classical in there. I mean, a true contemporary dancer has got ballet as their base and classical ballet, and that is their base. And then they choose to extemporize on that and go into a contemporary world.
I think something that's really important to me is trying to do what I can from my position of power that comes with having a social media platform to dismantle certain systems that I think are really gross and harmful.
I think of relationships as having a really safe place with someone where you are, and making an effort to show up everyday - to see them and feel seen, especially as an actor when you're already pretending to be other people all the time. It's an incredible gift to feel seen by one person; a culture of two.
I want to create or be a platform for people who have been labelled as a victim. I'm not going to be their voice; that's their voice. I want to allow people to voice their life beyond labels.
I've always been passionate about human rights in general. I think anyone who knows me can attest to that. I really wasn't given a voice until very recently, but I've always spoken out about the bullshit that's going on since the beginning of having a platform.
Having worked at four separate Wall Street firms, having seen a variety of talent at those places, and having competed against Goldman as a banker, one thing you have to be struck by is the power of their recruiting.
I think I'm seen as trustworthy. I'm seen as having determination and persistence, and I'm seen as having a capacity to reach achievable answers to difficult issues.
If you look at capitalism and patriarchy, they're both such hierarchical, competitive, oneupmanship systems. They've trained us all [to think] that power means having all the goods or having the most money or having the most attention or having the most fame. That's not the power that interests me. Actually, the deconstruction of that power is what interests me.
I love the power of music and artistry and feel a responsibility having a platform to preach good things.
The soul then, as being immortal, and having been born again many times, and having seen all things that exist, whether in this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all . . . all enquiry and all learning is but recollection.
People assume that because I'm a celebrity and have this platform that I always know what I'm talking about. I guess I don't always know what I'm talking about because I'm a kid who's trying to figure it out amid all the chaos of the world at large, and also the chaos of having this voice and responsibility. At the same time, this voice and responsibility has been the biggest blessing because I'm able to create change just by posting something on Instagram. That's really amazing. I can't believe that I get to have that megaphone and I get to decide how to use it.
'The Firebird' just symbolizes a lot for me and my career. It was one of the first really big principal roles that I was ever given an opportunity to dance with American Ballet Theatre, and it was a huge step for the African-American community, I think, within the classical ballet world.
I think for a while magazines were using celebrities and it's really coming back to the age of the supermodel and models having a name and having a voice and it's refreshing.
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