​"You can do anything you want, even if you are being told negative things."

• FIRST African-American woman to be appointed principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater (ABT)
• REDEFINED the image of a ballerina as muscular and strong, rather than thin and delicate
• While most professional dancers begin training as toddlers, Copeland didn't start dancing until she was 13, and had to work extra hard to catch up
• Joined ABT at the age of 18, the ONLY Black woman in the company
• Gained international attention with her 2012 performance in The Firebird
• Ignored sharp pain in her leg for fear of losing the role, and only after The Firebird did she see a doctor and discover that her tibia was fractured in six places
• Returned to ballet a year later
• Also featured in a music video with pop music icon Prince, as well as danced on some of his tour performances
• Cast in one of the lead roles of On the Town on Broadway
• FIRST Black woman to dance the lead in Swan Lake
• Promoted to principal dancer in 2015
• Works with Project Plié, a program run by ABT that seeks to bring more racial and ethnic diversity to ballet through education and scholarships
• Named 2013's National Youth of the Year Ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Bibliography: Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.
Drimmer, Stephanie W. National Geographic Kids: The Book of Heroines: Tales of History's Gutsiest Gals. Washington DC: National Geographic Partners, LLC, 2016. Print.
Marciniak, Kristin. Women in Arts and Entertainment. Minneapolis: Abdo Publishing, 2017. Print.

Books by this Awesome Woman

(picture book)

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

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Spread the word!

(documentary)

(poster)

(performance)

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