Misty Copeland opens up about increasing diversity in the world of ballet and the “why” behind her ballet slipper emoji campaign.
Misty Copeland remembers the first time she saw a brown ballet slipper. She was 14 years old and performing in Debbie Allen’s iconic “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker” ballet.
The brown slippers she saw among her fellow dancers had originally been standard European pink slippers the company members had “pancaked” — or splotched with foundation — until the color was closer to their skin tones.
“It just opened my mind and my eyes to an even bigger world of possibilities as to what a ballerina could look like,” the professional dancer, 41, told
