When Misty Copeland takes the stage for the American Ballet Theatre, she feels at home.

As a young child, home was a shabby motel room – until she found her missing link to opportunity.

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“The missing link was art,” Copeland told WRAL News. “It was dance and ballet.”

When Twyla Tharp Made Ballet Modern
Misty Copeland performs in a rehearsal of Twyla Tharp's seminal 1973 ballet "Deuce Coupe," at American Ballet Theater in Manhattan, May 8, 2019. Tharp threw down a gauntlet in 1973: She mixed classical and modern dance to make the first crossover ballet, “Deuce Coupe.” “There’s such a different way of moving in ‘Deuce Coupe,’” Copeland said. “It was so hard for me to articulate at first.” (Karsten Moran/The New York Times)

At a local Boys and Girls Club ballet class, she proved to be a prodigy. As she turned professional, her only limitation, it seemed, was her skin.

“The common language has been for black and brown dancers that we just don't have the right bodies and the right ‘look,’” Copeland said.

Dancers of colors are often told they aren’t right to be the star attraction on center stage.

“We're looking at the principal dancer in the middle, hoping one day that will be us,” Copeland said.

Only 1% of ballet dancers achieve that title. After 15 years of hard work, Copeland was named principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, becoming the first African American woman to do so.

Many Giselles, but Only One Osipova
Misty Copeland and Herman Corneji in American Ballet Theater’s “Giselle” in New York, May 15, 2018. (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)

“I just sat there on the floor in tears, just out of joy, knowing that this was changing the path for so many in the future,” Copeland said.

She now considers herself a “vessel,” opening doors for more minorities in the arts – be it in fashion design, writing books or chasing their own ballet dreams.

Her goal, she said, is “to give everyone an equal opportunity whether or not they want to become a professional.”

Time Magazine listed Copeland as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2015.

She travels the world as a speaker and is coming to Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Sept. 6.