A Quote by Misty Copeland

It's a European art form, and you're used to seeing a certain type of person as a ballerina. And I don't look like a lot of the girls around me. — © Misty Copeland
It's a European art form, and you're used to seeing a certain type of person as a ballerina. And I don't look like a lot of the girls around me.
Maybe I'm seeing myself in a different way than the people in the audience see me, 'cause to me, I think I look like a ballerina and I feel like a ballerina. But maybe I'm not seeing what other people are seeing.
I used to always make art for girls. That was the thing I did for girls to like me. I did portraits, drawings, letters that formed outlines of significant things in our relationship. Art. I just used art in general. It usually worked.
I loved surrealism and abstract painting, and anything related to those. I always thought painting was the highest form of art. What led me to drawing was seeing so much self-important, pretentious, conceptual-type art in university. I wanted to reject that by making quick, fun art.
See I'm used to seeing myself with hair now, so it's not a big deal. Now when I see pictures of me bald I'm like 'ew.' But people are used to seeing me bald so when I'm walking around without the hat on, I see people doing a lot of double takes.
What's important for me is to find the right kind of girls who express a vision of a woman. We like girls who look smart and intelligent with natural beauty - a certain quality of skin and hair. And she doesn't look exactly like a model.
I really enjoyed watching a ballerina named Denise Dabrowski who used to dance at California Ballet. She was a beautiful ballerina and role model for a lot of young dancers.
I know there are a lot of eyes on me now from young girls, and it makes me so proud. The only Black woman examples aren't Rihanna and Beyoncé. It makes me proud that I am a classical ballerina and they can look at me and see another way to succeed. That is setting a new standard.
I never saw a little African-American girl saving the world. So to be able to be that for not only myself but girls who look like me is really important and inspiring. Unfortunately, we don't see ourselves saving the world a lot, and if we do see any type of superhero, that person usually has superpowers.
I definitely do not think of makeup as, like, a validation type thing. For me, it's a creative outlet and an art form. It's not like, 'Oh my God, I need to feel pretty.' It's like, 'This is so cool. I just created art on my face.
I'm, like, a person who likes love. And I can find love in any type of person. I've dated girls, and I've liked girls. But they're usually straight girls, so it never works out. I mean, I'm not that gay, so I don't have the energy to convince someone else to be gay, you know?
I like art that challenges you and makes a lot of people angry because they don't get it. Because they refuse to look at it properly. Rather than open their mind to the possibility of seeing something, they just resist. A lot of people think contemporary art makes them feel stupid. Because they are stupid. They're right. If you have contempt about contemporary art, you are stupid. You can be the most uneducated person in the world and completely appreciate contemporary art, because you see the rebellion. You see that it's trying to change things.
We play different people - our art form is performance art - so unless you're playing the same type of person, I don't know if you could improve or make it worse.
I used to see Triumph TR7s and E-Type Jags, and I used to think, 'One day, I'm gonna have one of those.' I remember seeing an E-Type and walking round it 40 or 50 times.
Just when you meet someone and you're a certain type of person - it's easy to be around, and you're fun to be around.
Some people have like a certain person, when they're around they get like a gnarly energy. I see it in other people, if a certain person's around they compete really well or something like that. I think it's sort of like that.
I used to want to be a war photographer, and I used to want to be a ballerina and a comedian. I used to want to be a writer. I invalidated myself; it’s a mistake for me. [...] There’s just a lot of stuff that really moves me, and I don’t know how to express it, and I just want to try to do the best I can and surround myself with good people who don’t invalidate me.
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