​"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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(DVD documentary)

(poster)

(DVD performance)

Please note that while Awesome Women Library tries to include links only to media from reputable sources, we cannot attest to the quality or content of any media listed on this website. Our mission is to introduce you to these Awesome Women and give you a wide array of resources for learning more. We haven't read everything listed and are not a recommendation site, nor is this meant to be an exhaustive catalog of every book related to this woman -- there's just too much out there! Happy reading!!