All products featured on Self are independently selected by our editors.
However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
This article originally appeared in the December 2016 issue of SELF.
“When I’m on the stage, I’m all about the physical. I can’t be worried about things,” Copeland says. “Other stuff just doesn’t exist.”
“Then we rehearse from noon to seven, sometimes with a lunch break, sometimes not.”
“It’s nonstop!”
she says, sounding exhilarated.
“My back is my favorite body part,” Copeland says. “So I love wearing low-back leotards and dresses.”
Indeed, Copeland has become ballet’s most celebrated, and active, ambassador.
But Copeland has also transcended the stage, engaging in her own unique dance withpop culture.
(“It was one of those ‘How did I get here?’
“Even on vacation I’m doing ballet class every day,” Copeland says.
But at the center of it all, Copeland can be found calmly attending ballet class.
She’sen pointefor up to eight hours a day, burning through 10 pairs of shoes a week.
“People thought I was mute,” she says.
“That’s been the most shocking thing for my family to see.
They’re like, ‘How are you speaking in front of all of those people?’
" In her memoir, Copeland characterizes her childhood as “packing, scrambling, leavingoften barely surviving.”
Ballet presented a welcome refuge.
“It was when everything clicked,” she says of her fateful first class at age 13.
“School was hard for me.
Finding dance was like finding a way I can learn, visually and in my body.”
“I don’t think I understood the magnitude of what I was committing to,” Copeland says.
At 16, when her mother asked her to come home, Copeland requested to be emancipated.
A messy public court case ensued, but the young dancer’s commitment to ballet only deepened.
“And it still is that to this day.”
Soon, though, her burgeoning career would become the catalyst for a long struggle withbody image.
Copeland was invited to join ABT upon her high school graduation.
But her physiquewidely celebrated nowwas met with criticism at first.
“So everyone’s expecting your body, as your instrument, to look a certain way.”
Copeland speaks candidly about being asked to drop pounds by ABT (she says they used the wordlengthen).
Rather than comply, she binged defiantly on Krispy Kreme doughnuts, ordering two dozen at a time.
She started eating mostly fish and veggies, limiting empty calories, and doing somecardio workoutsin addition to ballet.
“There was such a difference in my energy level,” she says.
She also developed a deep respect for her own physical strength.
Copeland is graceful, but she owns the stage with both her presence and her physicality.
It’s earned her a new generation of megafansand more than 10 million views on YouTube.
“I’m not trying to change classical ballet,” Copeland says.
“I love everything about it.
But we have to show that we’re athletes.
We’re putting in the same amount of work; we have the same muscles.”
Seeing someone who looks like you could change your path.”
“He was a big part of my growth,” she says.
It was the first time I started to understand my purpose.”
And she’s equally passionate about using her story to change the dialogue around body image in dance.
“Even on vacation I’m doing ballet class every day,” she explains.
So when exactly does Copeland relax?
“I give a shot to find time here and there,” she says with a laugh.
“I love seeing concertsI just went to Drake.”
The rapper has become a part of her preshow ritual as well.
“Before every performance I put music on and focus on what I’m about to do.
That keeps me calm, focused on my breath,” Copeland says.
Having journeyed such a distance to get to where she is, Copeland takes nothing for granted.
At every performance there are people who’ve never seen me before."
“When I’m on the stage, I’m all about the physical.
I can’t be on my phone or worried about things.
All that other stuff just doesn’t exist.”
