Copeland's Life In Motion

African American ballerina Misty Copeland’s autobiography, Life in Motion, published in 2014 begins when she is two living with her mother and continues through her career as an America Ballet Theatre (ABT) soloist. She divides the book into 14 chapters; each one discussing a different part of her life. Copeland started dancing at the age of thirteen. She took her first ballet class at the Boys and Girls Club. Between the age of thirteen and eighteen she attended different dance studios to train in ballet. After graduating high school, Copeland moved to New York, where she became the only African American soloist to dance at the ABT. The vice president of the Boys and Girls Club, Frank Sanchez, said, “Misty Copeland’s Life in Motion is an inspiration to all young people. She is the Jackie Robinson of the ballet world”. Copeland lived a twisted childhood, between moving all the time and a custody fight things were not easy for her. Throughout Copeland’s life she looked at dance as …show more content…
Throughout Copeland’s younger years, her mom was jumping in and out of relationships with different men meaning they were constantly moving around. While Copeland was in the middle of legal disputes between her mom and a dance teacher she said, “It was important to me that I not miss too many days of dance class. So a couple weeks after going back home to Mommy, I was thrilled to be in a studio again, turning my focus back to ballet” (127). This quote explains to the reader how focused Copeland was on ballet as well as how eager she was to get back to ballet just after two weeks off. Furthermore, Copeland stated “Dance was still the center of my life” (133). This lets the reader know how passionate Copeland was about ballet and how much it impacted her life. These quotes explains that even though the hard things she went through she could always turn to ballet to be her escape from the “real