Above Photo: Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo, June 17, 2017. I discussed Misty Copeland’s technical issues in two previous reviews from last year’s American Ballet Theatre Met season: Don Quixote and Swan Lake. In general, in difficult technical segments, Misty tends to simplify steps, in particular her fouetté turns, the punctuating mark in Kitri and Odile’s solos in the Grand Pas de Deux.
No longer must we rely on descriptions of her turns in the iconic Swan Lake segment as it is now on YouTube. A pirate video from ABT’s March 15 Swan Lake performance has been the source of much commentary (postings on BalletAlert go on for pages). The 57-second video filmed from the audience shows the turn section of the Grand Pas de Deux with Misty and Herman Cornejo in which Misty does 13 turns followed by piqué turns to fill out the music before Herman does pirouettes á la seconde.
My thoughts:
- Some suggest that Misty had an off night in Singapore. I disagree. Her Singapore fouettés were not an anomaly as the video generally represents the quality of her turns, albeit at a slightly lower level. I saw her in Don Quixote and Swan Lake last Met season. She generally performed 15-18 fouetté turns followed by simpler piqué turns to fill out the music as she did in Singapore. The only difference is that her Singapore segment was captured on video.
- Her fouettés are tentative, without the necessary energy and gusto to maintain the repetitive series of turns. Her “spotting” lacks spark as her head blandly moves from front to front (spotting is a technique dancers use during turns by delaying rotation of the head until it snaps around to the original position, focusing on a particular “spot” while the body rotates at a constant speed.) Also characteristic of her turns is a rightward movement of her body during the turns. Last year, she started her turns stage left rather than center stage to compensate. In Singapore she started slightly stage right. Given her progressive movements to the right, she had to shut down the turns before she ran out of space.
- On the video, it wasn’t just her fouetté turns that were problematic; her piqué turns that followed were also lackluster, with her trailing leg barely off the ground rather than in a retiré position.
- The contrast between her turn segment and Herman’s is stark. Herman was impressive as always in his pirouettes á la seconde (also known as turns in second position), a great mix of power and control. The point of Odile’s technical wizardry with 32 turns is to whip Prince Siegfried into a state of extreme desire, enticing the Prince to break his vow to Odette. Given the mismatch of technical achievement, it looks as if the Prince is seducing Odile, not in line with the story.
Misty Responds
It is unusual for a dancer to respond to negative posts on social media. However, Misty was quick to post a response to the video on YouTube. In addition, on Instagram she copied a negative comment from the video and posted the following:
I’m happy to share this because I will forever be a work in progress and will never stop learning. I learn from seeing myself on film and rarely get to. So thank you.
I will always reiterate that I am by no means the best in ballet. I understand my position and what I represent. I know that I’m in a very unique position and have been given a rare platform. All I’ve ever wanted is to bring ballet to more people and to help to diversify it.
I’ve worked extremely hard to be where I am and I believe that what I bring to the table is authentic artistry with a unique point of view through my life experiences, and my unusual path and upbringing. Also as a black woman and black ballerina. I would love to see all of the incredible deserving black dancers get the opportunities that I have.
I will forever be humbled and extremely grateful for the fact that I get to do what I love for a living, that I get to do all of the incredible roles that I do, in particular Swan Queen.
There are so many ballerinas that never get to experience dancing the most iconic and demanding role in a ballerinas repertoire. I have so so so much respect for what I do and for the ballerinas I stand on the shoulders of. I’m in awe everyday that I am a part of such an incredible art form that has changed and enriched my life in so many ways and that I get to do it all with ABT.
I don’t decide who’s promoted or what roles I dance. I never envisioned myself as the Swan Queen after being in the company for almost 15 years before i was given the opportunity. I have such deep and conflicting feelings connected to Swan Lake. As a black woman and as a ballerina given the chance to take on this role. I often question if I deserve to perform this role. My conclusion, I do. Some of the most memorable Swan Queens in history have brought so much more to this role without having to present the incredible and evolved technique of today by doing insane tricks that bring some to see Swan Lake. For the anticipated 32 fouettés. But it is so much more than that. People come to see ballet for the escape. For the experience of being moved through our movement and artistry, not to score us on the technicality of what we do. This is why ballet is not a sport.
A ballerinas career is not, nor should be defined by how many fouettés she executes. They are a part of the choreography to tell a story of pulling off the entrancement she holds over prince Siegfried. The point is to finish the 3rd act with a whirlwind movement that sucks him in just one last time before it’s revealed that Odile is not Odette.
This is the incredible beauty of ballet. To move people.
I’m happy to have this dialogue because it’s something I believe in whole heartedly. The history of ballet and it’s origin of pure freedom and expression is what we need to hold onto. Not to come into the theatre as a critic armed with judgement.
I do appreciate the changes in the ballet technique, focused on evolving our technical abilities, but the point is to move people and for them to understand the stories we tell through dance. And that is an incredible responsibility and opportunity I will never take for granted.
What followed were gushing puff pieces in Elle, Dance Magazine, Glamour #1, Glamour #2, Cosmopolitan. Glowing comments from Glamour included: “Misty Copeland is one of the most talented working ballerinas right now, full stop.” “For what it’s worth, Copeland’s so-called “fail” was absolute fire.” Dance Magazine’s contribution to this media blitz was to argue that fouettés don’t matter, and that Misty is held to a higher standard than other dancers. This looks like an orchestrated public relations effort to get out in front of the negative video: (1) post a comment early in the comment thread of the video; (2) find a negative comment on Twitter and respond; (3) alert media allies for favorable press portraying gracious Misty versus The Haters.
Misty Generates Divided Opinions
This episode and resulting commentary illustrate the polar extreme opinions of Misty.
As I noted in a previous article, Misty is certainly a celebrity. She is the subject of numerous articles in the popular press focusing on many aspects of her life and personal history, making Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2015 and a subject of a 60 Minutes profile in addition to numerous product endorsements. Given her exposure on television and the popular press, Misty is a familiar face, even to those with little interest in ballet.
The list of dancers with name recognition among non-ballet fans is short. Any list of ballet celebrities whose fame transcends the ballet world would include Mikhail Baryshnikov-global; Rudolph Nureyev-global; Julio Bocca-Latin America; Maya Plisetskaya-Russia; Roberto Bolle-Italy; Margot Fonteyn-Great Britain; Sylvie Guillem-France. A common thread among the dancers is their rare technical abilities combined with dramatic flair and charismatic persona that put them far above other dancers. Such talent allowed these dancers to go mainstream in popular culture.
Misty’s source of celebrity status is different from the dancers above. Rather than gaining fame through jaw-dropping technical achievement and memorable dramatics, her source of popularity is her background and path breaking accomplishment as the first African-American Principal Dancer at ABT. For star dancers, dancing principal roles in their early 20s was just the start of their journey. For Misty’s fans, her promotion to Principal Dancer at age 32 is an end itself, with her performances a celebration of her achievement.
For her fans, technical commentary on her dancing misses the main point; her primary contribution is that she has broken barriers in the ballet world, serving as an inspiration and role model to many who would otherwise not be exposed to the art form, helping to diversify dance. To her detractors, the publicity she generates is out of proportion to her accomplishments on stage. Examples are comments from Glamour above in addition to the Dance Magazine Power List of the most influential people in dance, proclaiming that she is “…the ballerina of our generation.”
A video that shows technique not up to current day standards adds to the gulf between her technical abilities and her press fueled celebrity status.
The only question I have after reading this is, how much ballet history does Ms Copeland know? 32 fouettés are hardly the “incredible and evolved technique of today” – Legnani first did them in St Petersburg in 1893, 125 years ago.
“A ballerinas career is not, nor should be defined by how many fouettés she executes. They are a part of the choreography to tell a story” Um, yes, as you say, Ms Copeland, they are a part of the choreography. In other words, dance the choreography, not what you think is a better or more expressive version. If the ABT Swan Lake has 32 fouettés in it, dance them. If it’s 10 fouettés then 10 piqué turns, dance them. Just. Do. It.
Bottom line is she CANT DO THE STEPS! her stardom and “artistry (which doesn’t exist either” are all from PR hype . She doesn’t have the talent or perseverance to learn the technique. Period.
I agree Phil, but the PR hype is not really working anymore. Look at 85% of the comments on her YouTube videos and there’s more and more popping up showing just how horribly she’s lacking. People are definitely seeing through the smoke and mirrors now and eyes are REALLY going to be on her from now on. Very few are fooled by her at this point.
She says she’s a “work in progress”. At 35 she should have mastered these basic techniques long ago. She goes on to say that “I learn from seeing myself on film and rarely get to.” Perhaps is shouldn’t be so rare and event. She might understand why many people find her technique wanting.
I find the biggest sin here to be the other dancers who have worked their butts off and are not getting promoted. That absurd act 2 act 3 swap last year with Ms. Lane was just ridiculous. Suddenly she’s good enough for act 4 and of course her over rehearsed bows. Let’s really talk about the elephant in the room… discrimination. In reverse.
People of color aren’t at the highest advantage in our society. Diversity is important within institutions. Representation matters. F*** the fouettes.
Nikki, your reply is so, so sad. You’re basically saying, “who cares if the bar is lowered as long as there’s a brown face there”. Most people care about …ya know, actually being SUCCESFUL at their job/career. The fact that you don’t is really quite pathetic. Doing a sh***y job is perfectly fine with you as long as there’s “representation” and Misty counts on people just like you to be awed by her mediocrity and make her rich.
Boy I see a lot of jealousy here. I get it, you can work your butt off and still never be successful. But success happens not only to those who are talented, which she is, it’s also marketability. If I had a dime for every mediocre and successful white person in the field of entertainment (including dance…especially the ballet world) who is successful I would be rich. And yes, there is an underlying racial factor involved here no matter how much you and others deny it. So tough Noogies. Misty Copeland is on the map. If you are the one of many who are dancing in the background and still talented well…that’s the way it goes. And by the way, I was awarded a scholarship from the Ford Foundation to study ballet as a twelve-year-old in the early 1960s. I won other scholarships as well. I am a woman of color. Never made it big. Not squawking about it. Happy for Misty Copeland. I suggest you put on your big person pants and suck it up.
Very few people care about ballet in America. Ballet dancers believe it’s a very important art form. It is in Russia but not in America. It’s just a super tiny subset of entertainment. Misty has a good human interest story and obviously a self-promoting narcissist. The type who tends to thrive in America. The key is to weave around oneself a consumer-friendly, feel-good narrative with a bit of a sob story and pc politics thrown in to ENTERTAIN us peasants.
Exactly, I barely know anything about ballet in America and I’m a huge ballet fan. In the USA people are famous for being famous, great PR and as you point out accurately, a sob story. The people who celebrate her “artistry” are either too afraid to point out her many misgivings or know nothing about ballet. It is an insult to call Copeland “The ballerina of our generation”, that title goes to ballerinas who will never be forgotten from our generation because of the true artistry they brought to the table such as Natalia Osipova, Svetlana Zakharova, Evgenia Obratszova, Marianela Nuñez (a Latina ballerina from a small company who didn´t even know english and is now dancing at the prestigious Royal Ballet) etc.
Make Russians laugh again