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Misty Copeland Becomes First Black Dancer to Lead US Ballet Group

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misty-copeland-awesome-humanThe American Ballet Theatre has named Misty Copeland its principal dancer – the first time a black ballerina has held the prestigious role, BBC reports.

The 32-year-old Missouri-born ballerina has become a forceful voice for diversity in ballet and was named principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre on Tuesday, June 30.

She is the first African-American woman to reach that status in the company’s 75-year history.

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In the past few years Misty Copeland has achieved celebrity status and appeared in commercials and TV shows and written a best-selling memoir. She also appeared on the cover of Time magazine as one of the most influential figures of 2015 and has written both a children’s book, “Firebird.”

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Speaking on her promotion she says ‘This is it. This has been my dream since I was 13, to be a principal dancer and reach these heights. But it hasn’t been overnight. It’s been 14 years of extremely hard work … I’m just so extremely honored to be an African-American and to be in this position. So many young dancers of color stop dancing at an early age because they just don’t think there will be a career path for them. I hope that will change. I had moments of doubting myself and wanting to quit, because I didn’t know if there would be a future for an African-American woman” at that level,” she said. “At the same time, it made me so hungry to push through.’

Adesola is the BellaNaija Head of Content and Digital Ventures. She is a BN stan.. Yes, things are that serious for her when it comes to BellaNaija.com. She's a lover of gist, novels, music, and food. She's constantly trying not to take life for granted. She spends most of her time either keeping up with the world on the Internet or sharing some acquired knowledge about digital media. She is passionate about using her voice to speak against injustice, especially towards women. To communicate with her directly, you can hit her up on: Instagram - @adesola.au Twitter - @Adesola_AU

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