Misty Copeland — 5 Cool Facts About The Powerful Ballerina

Misty Copeland is a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre. But she’s more than a ballerina now. Copeland is a spokesperson for Under Armour, the author of Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina and a children’s book Firebird. As the third African-American dancer with the ABT (and second soloist) she is an inspiration to “little brown girls” everywhere.

Misty Copeland: 10 Powerful Pictures of the American Ballerina

Here are 5 cool facts about Misty Copeland.

1. Six and a half million people saw live ballet in 2014. Almost eight million viewed her Under Armour commercial online.
2. Copeland is the first ABT African-American ballerina to perform the lead role, Swan Queen, in Swan Lake.
3. As a little girl, she choreographed performances to Mariah Carey’s earliest hits.
4. Prince invited Misty to dance in his “Welcome To America” tour.
5. She was recently asked to speak about diversity at Goldman Sachs.