Yeah it’s really creepy and weird

Exactly. One can critique a ballerina’s techniques etc. all they want but this “lazy” label is really only given to Copeland who is African American. It’s a racist trope plain and simple. I don’t think anyone “lazy” would ever accomplish what Copeland has accomplished. She might not be the best ballerina in history, but “lazy”?? Come on!

​@@jinzhao9145exactly.

Me either. You can tell she works very hard and I really enjoy watching her dance which in the end is all that really matters

@@morganvasquez8167 that’s a pretty wild thing to say. People did not start going to the theatre again because of her. Maybe she had her own groupies, but unless it’s a Baryshnikov, people go to the ballet for the ballet by and large. It’s also a terrible insult to the other black dancers who really are good, that somehow Misty is better than they are, just because she’s made a name for herself in the media..not as a dancer, but because she’s a Black dancer. If Misty were white I doubt she’d have even made it into the corps of any reputable company, and that’s just a fact, like it or not. When you put her up against every principle ever to dance the roles that Misty has danced, Misty doesn’t even come close.

@@morganvasquez8167 and at a professional level, stage presence and charisma simply aren’t enough. And that goes for all of the performing arts, not just ballet. Whether it’s a symphony orchestra, or a concert soloist, an opera singer etc, in such a competitive field, just looking good doesn’t cut it..there are audience expectations that they will see and hear what they have paid to see and hear. Nobody should get a free pass just because of their race or because they’ve got a great PR machine behind them.

I like this comment the best, you hit the nail on the head.

I was thinking the same. Misty is seriously overrated but pianist during the WSJ+ was horrible!

It wasn't the fault of the pianist. The pianist usually tries to showcase anyone they are acting as accompanist. Copeland's timing is so off, the pianist slowed down to accommodate her. This only indicated how unmusical Copeland is and she obviously has a tone deaf ear.

@@kerrytakashi12 I wasn’t referring to the tempo. The pianist’s playing was robotic and made so many mistakes (at 3:02 I thought he was just slapping random notes on the piano). You are right about Misty though, she has 0 musicality.

Horrible and unwatchable. Also, her wearing white tights is absolutely racist - why would a black ballerina try to mock a white one!? Can't she own her own skin ? Ewww!

Manana Noridze there’s no such thing as racism against white people. Also the white tights are part of the costume. Are white ballerinas mocking black people when they wear black tights? It makes no sense.

@@julialepsch117 You just made a real fool of yourself by denying reverse racism facts in our society. I am not gonna educate you on that, cause I sure do hope,that you're not banned on Google to research it yourself.If your narrow mind will let you do so. In one classical ballet, that is 250+ years old, part of the costume is painting face black and wearing black hair wig. Your Misty raised hell about it and made 12 year old ballerinas getting life threats! For just following the costume and their role on stage. Misty is the true reverse racist herself,besides being a real terrible "ballerina".

Manana Noridze Listen, aside from being horrible to the girl who you just replied to, you’re being hypocritical. You most definitely can’t do half the things Misty can do. Misty is inspirational to young girls, just like me, and I’d like it if you didn’t let your jealousy of Misty’s natural talent make you hate on her and her beautiful dancing. And Julia Lepsch is right, you made a fool of yourself. And even worse, you reversed it and called her a fool, making you pretty immature and petty right now

Manana Noridze you must be trolling lmao ballet companies won’t change the color of the tights in a costume to match a ballerina’s skin tone. If you want to make a claim for reverse racism (which is SO weak here) look at the industry, not this dancer. Black dancers have been told for EVER not to “own their own skin” by this INDUSTRY. Get out of here.

It's honestly shocking

That's why I quit watching US "ballerinas". Russian ballet has a superior standard... watch all the incredible dancers there, not to mention the kids who train to be professionals... any Vaganova girl would dance this better than Copeland.

Russian ballerinas look all the same to me and lack artistry imo. But you're entitled to your opinion.

No, it isn't. That's why Copeland is being singled out, because her dancing isn't on par with other American leading ballerinas like, say, Skylar Brandt or Tiler Peck.

nahhhh XD

Alle Rhie agreed, she’s no good

But who is the prima ballerina here, the owner of this channel or M. Copeland?

I think Misty is a bad prima BUT YOU’re soooooooooooo right.

Just say “women of color” as she’s biracial/mixed.

I agree, the choreography is awful. I’ve heard from others that there are various problems with her technique that she has been working on

Would you be willing to engage in more conversation? (Before you discount me, I'm a minority, trying to have engaging conversations which I hope can help minorities more by bridging the gap between far left and right. I identify with your description of level of involvement/appreciation in the ballet world/community). I don't think anyone here should feel humiliated for engaging in conversation, yourself included. In my opinion, your comments aren't well formed because your accusations are relatively sweeping, but I will give you benefit of the doubt, and think your experience is important to consider. You undermine your own logic: the commenters aren't really talking amongst themselves if you're here, are they? About half of these comments support Misty. We are all talking, but we are talking past each other. You could be arguing the two camps you think you see (misty sucks/racists vs. misty's amazing non-racist) are having two separate conversations here, but then you'd fall into one of those camps too, and it's doing nothing to progress the narrative where we all come to the table and try to figure out how to move forward. While I haven't seen any overt racism here, it doesn't mean that racist people aren't trying to find "nice" ways to put Misty down, true. The person who made this video should probably include Misty's most successful performances, rather than bad ones, in fairness. I will not discount racist motivations, but the problem is, we can't prove it. I might argue that your thoughts are discriminatory in their own right, calling people's ideas "nonsense," calling people "deeply disturbed" without any qualifying of the word, circumstance, or considering their opinions on a level unrelated to race. I might even call *you* racist, because I believe dismissing people as racist disengages from really helpful, complicated dialogues we need to be having about minority representation. But I don't believe those are your intentions, and think others deserve the same consideration from you. *I believe the slinging of the word "racist" does a deep disservice to occur to help elevate black ballerinas.* I believe that unquestionable support of Misty, as a representative of black dancers, gives more fuel to the racist fire by allowing her to not meet the standards others ballerinas were held to: changing her choreography, allowing her not complete fouette turns where others must or lose their role - NOT aesthetics. These aren't personal standards, but long-held standards of revered companies, for which all ballerinas compete for the top spot. The message this sent to me, as a POC, is that we had to change long-held standards to get Misty to the top, and I'm not sure if it's a good message. Misty *did* pave the way, but I believe we need to acknowledge the nuance of why, and it wasn't on some overwhelming technique or talent alone, but her human-interest story and marketability. We are sending out the message that "being an interesting, beautiful, hardworking person puts you at the top." That's great, but then let's not pretend that being at the top in America means that technique and talent must be present, and stop holding other artists to a different standard. Let's apologize to Sarah Lane for taking the role from her. Let's insist on Alastair Macauly's apology to Jennifer Ringer. Let's pay retribution to Kathryn Morgan for losing roles/career to weight gain from illness. There is a terrible hypocrisy allowing Copeland at the top. Additionally her success 1)steals from black ballerinas who *really need* more attention (I *adore* Courtney Lavine, and have yet to understand why/how she's still hanging out in the corps of ABT since 2010), and 2)it provides *real racists* with a terrible example that a black dancer needs special accommodation/reasoning to be at the top. A word from a POC, who is worried for other POC: I'd be very careful about how liberally anyone uses the word "racist." Can you please clarify the intent of your personal comment? Realistically, what kind of consequences are there for talking down to *true* racists; if they are "deeply disturbed," then what kind of pushback do you think there will be from deeply disturbed people? I think mobs, murders, violence. And calling out people as racist who feel dismissed or insulted by your opinion of their "nonsense," when it is an opinion of talent, likely widens the divide. They write you off as a name-caller, when you deserve the opportunity to clarify and be heard that there appears to be some sort of real problem with black ballerinas in ballet. The more I've branched out of the progressive circles I am associated with (academia, the arts, my state) the more I realize the echo chambers are dangerously unaware of the silent and frustrated middle, plus the sheer number of outright "other side." I am eager to hear your thoughts, especially any that might disagree. Can you say the same?

C F Of course I am willing to engage. But I cannot believe that if you are a POC that you have any issue with calling statements like “She’s a BROILarina”. as racist. Or that someone suggests the very essence of her body is ugly and wrong for ballet, whoops, not just “wrong” but inferior. I am not sure how you can in good conscience suggest that those comments are anything but racist. And they don’t make technical claims like uou do about the number of fouettes. I wasn’t aware that that was still a thing that bugged people. Those 32 fouettes, and indeediic the whole structure of those classics ballets are more like a circus trick than genuine artistry. And fail to see the special merit of Sarah Lane. Yes, she is lovely and talented. But I don’t think she is obvioust ly more talents than Misty. To the contrary, I think Misty has more fluidity thay almost any dancer I have ever seen. Her limbs have a liquid almost bonelessj quality in those backward sissones. I am not familiar with the other dancer you mention. Have heard her name, but not seen her perform. But I am taken aback by your assumption that my assessment is based on naked partisanship rather than assessment of her technique.

@@tpiety Ah, I see the issue in miscommunication. Your comment (on my page) is listed as a general reply, and so I believed it aimed at the entire discussion here (I had to dig through replies to find it the racist commentary; sub-replies are not easily visible). I believed you to be saying that anyone who attacks the aesthetic of Misty's dancing must have some inherently racist reasoning behind it. I think your comment is supposed to be a direct reply to Skeptic Ree. That is an interesting thread, and I'll go over there. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but you can see on my end why it occurred. A couple of things, now somewhat of a moot point, but are now "out there" because of the convo: Unfortunately 32 fouettes isn't just a pony trick that "bugs" people, it is/was a company based standard, whether the public cares for them or not. I am upset standards/choreo are simplified for Misty, but are not as generously applied to other dancers. I'm not happy with the implications of that, but am open to other interpretations of it. I'd encourage you to also really challenge your convictions about who is racist, motivated by your comment "I cannot believe if you are a POC that you have any issue with calling statements like 'broilerina..."'as racist." You should probably start believing that POC *can* be racist (and there's a bit of irony there thinking that we "all think the same" - yikes!) or prejudiced (homophobic, misogynistic, harbor religious discrimination...). Marginalized groups often feel frustration toward each other, if not outright prejudice bred by cultural upbringing. Interminority racism is real and is important to understand this when it comes to the expectation that minorities/marginalized groups will unite on the front of social justice issues for individual groups. I am not so convinced of unification, but further divide, based on history, however I am staying up to date with evidence of trends, and they are suggesting increases in unification, assuming the pendulum does not swing back soon.

C F I don’t know who you are, but I recognize the rhetorical style. It is that of a pedant. I get it. Me too. I am an academic and I suspect you are too. For some reason you seemed to think I was falling into a category that needed enlightment. Fair enough. I do the same thing. I am doing it now. But I think the miscommunication goes farther than you not realizing I was responding to a specific comment made to me. You seem to think You Tube comments are incomplete unless they encompass all of the nuance of an academic lecture or paper. Of course I understand the phenomenon of POC likewise engaging in behaviors and commentary that reflect they have internalized a racist society’s norms. Clarence Thomas and Herman Cain, Candice Owens, et. al. come to mind. But I still find it sort of surprising. And I also recognize that the position of the Clarence Thomases of the world is more complex than racial self-hatred but a matter of fiercely wanting to disclaim any notion of special privileges due to race and seeing in any ameliorative strategies an implict suggestion of inferiority. But all that seemed orthogonal to the point here. A lot of these criticisms are unambiguously racist. There are a lot of dancers who can whip out 32 fouettes who are not principal dancers. And Misty Copeland is not the first famous ballerina to struggle with them as Alastair MacClaulay, the dance critic for years at the New York Times describes in his piece I link to here. I don’t think anyone can accuse MacCaulay of being excessively generous. He was a trenchant critic of those who he felt did not measure up and some of his criticism, like of Jennifer Ringer’s weight, was, I think, off base. I didn’t always agree with him. But I respect him and I think it is significant that he thinks this is not as big a deal as many of these anonymous people making hateful comments do. I would be inclined to engage more with people who are not anonymous. Their outrage seems over the top and out-of-proportion to the “sin,” replete with white grievance (particularly on behalf of Sarah Lane) and reminds me of all those white people who thought Obama was disgracing the office of the President. So, all those things, in combination with the fact that I danced seriously for about a decade, trained at one of the best feeder schools in the country, a school that produced Rebecca Wright, Joe and Dan Duell, Jeff Gribler, Donna Wood, and others, and I have see Misty Copeland perform live and watched taped performances - all these things lead me to conclude that these critiques are straight-up racist. I stand by that. (okay. it won’t link but google it June 13, 2016)

@@cf8595 What a shame that you're corrupting the finest art of ballet with your shape,thoughts and concepts. I hope that Europeans will have smarts to keep you away an outright ban your ppl from traditional ballet dance and will not cave into that imaginary racism in it of yours. Shame.

Not all of us are dancers. We're paying audience members and ballet fans. Just because we can't dance like the pros doesn't mean we can't critique it - that's like saying critics (or audiences) can't say a movie is terrible because we're not actors/writers/directors. Many kinds of people would agree that technically, Misty is not up to par with the "greats" although she is beautiful and well-spoken. Her levels of success and achievements, like most of celebrity, is down to politics, marketability, and some degree of talent + luck.

The racists are out in full force.

Tamara Piety do you see we ever mention it’s because she’s (half) back she can’t dance? As many have pointed out, she doesn’t even look that black. There are many more talented black dancers than her being buried, over shadowed by her, who have much more African descent. Misty goes on camera over and over again talking about how oh it’s important we have black dancers yet said not single word regarding these dancers. Now isn’t that interesting? All she ever did is promoting herself, she clearly doesn’t give two shits about actual black talents and artists.

Tamara Piety Go watch Michaela prince for a black ballerina that actually deserves her position. Or precious adams

Ikr