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Misty Copeland, Dancer or Politician: Indentity Politics and Ballet

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Identity Politics Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Identity Politics

First published Tue Jul 16, 2002; substantive revision Tue Feb 7, 2012

The pithy phrase “identity politics” has come to signify too wide a variety of political theorizing of members of certain social groups, when it should be used to secure the political freedoms of us all. Division of groups by traits of its members: religious, ethnic, and the old stand-by, race, should be cautiously broached. Members of any constituency whom assert or reclaim ways of understanding their distinctiveness that challenge dominant oppressive characterizations, with the goal of greater self-determination should be lauded. When it comes to telling lies, in order to get people to unwittingly identify with you, people should be wary of those who seek to use any means possible for promotion rather than world good or the good of the group. What is good for one person, may be good for the group or it may not.

No, I am not talking about Misty Copeland in particular, but she is a good analogy, and there are many others who have a platform available to them to do many things due to their prominence. She is an astute woman in the vein of J Lo and we should not detract from her ability to use that for her own benefit and those groups she wishes to encourage-that is up to her. Jose Manuel Carreno has spawned a summer intensive in Florida, which plans to create a group of investors/individuals who are interested in Cuba by taking them there. YAGP has its own platform. Many other groups claim to have a mission to do something. I just think that they should do it, and not commingle the funds. I think not-for-profit groups should be very up-to-date and professional about their bookkeeping and plans, and keep us all informed. Otherwise they give legitimate enterprises a bad name. I am talking about something else.

The identity of dance, ballet, in particular. I am worried it is being made into a pop genre, and it is not. Personally, I have seen Misty Copeland dance, in person, and have stood face to face with her. She is tiny! She has a big persona, and she can use that for good and for bad. I do not think her video with Prince is good. I like Prince. I like Misty Copeland, but not together, and I do, in a way, see how they could be friends, have something in common, but I think she comes off looking like a sex symbol, because she has a beautiful body, is in a music video, and Prince is using her for that, as the epitome of his muse. Does anyone remember the Whitesnake video with Tawney Kittaen? The music, again in my opinion, was better, and Tawney might have been, too.

I look at the many ads and photos she has done, as able to be seen in Google images, and I know she is working hard, trying to prove herself and using this once in a lifetime opportunity to make an impact, money, and provide for her retirement. You do have to be somewhat careful in the scripts you choose. What are you trying to say? Are all of your points relevant? Are they truthful, logical? Contradictory? I do not think her dancing is as good as Marcelo Gomez’s is in the Paganini video clip. It worked with him, not with her. I did not say she failed, and it is hard for this stuff not to get around if it is public. Which is true? Are they all true? I said it doesn’t work. She cannot possibly be dancing when she is posing. That makes her as much of a model as it does a dancer. Is she a dancer or a model, or both? Where is the significance in that? Maybe its oversaturation. I am a rock music fan as well as a classical, and other, music fan. Misty seems less in his video, rather than more. She is more. A lot more. A Queen in the role of a engenue-at least not what I would have thought of as a groupie. Prince does not have the most remarkable history of upholding women’s integrity in his music videos, lifestyle or philosophies. Let’s just say I thought Misty was his equal, but perhaps it is just Prince that is the problem in this pairing. I mean afterall, his attorney did come up with the idea of using the “Artist formerly known as Prince, in order to avoid contractual restrictions and to allow him to continue performing.” CLever, but not Prince, his attorney.

I think Misty Copeland has a long way to go with her dancing before she is prima ballerina ssoluta-that’s all. She still has a long way to go with finding herself, with her dancing that is, and maybe with her pr as well. Sometimes her statements perhaps run afoul of her goals, verbally and pictorially. That can happen to us all in this day and age. I think she runs the risk of misinforming a whole generation of Misty-want-to-be’s about what ballet really is. What is it?

I think it is more like the case with the disabled. “Do not treat them like they are disabled”. You either want men to open the door for you, or you don’t. It’s not that black and white. Or is it? Are we still?I do fear, compartmentalizing a large powerful group, into smaller, less powerful ones that divide the vote. fans of ballet and fans of Misty Copeland, blacks, whites, cubans, gays, straights, men, women, whatever. We are all dancers; Ballet dancers in particular. Is it possible to use race in an arena where race is not the issue, talent is? The great black athletes of the world did not use the race card. They didn’t have to, and most of them were not half-white. With a mixed-race society, as our world is continually widening the reference of, aren’t race identity cards cliche-will they not be in the near future, completely? Misty is anxious to be the first black prima ballerina, a pr plug, but little else, because she is not completely black, so it is unreasonable to assume that that will be taken very seriously, unless there is something we do not know about. Likewise, she won’t be taken very seriously as a dancer if she is seen as a pr mongrel instead of a devoted student of classical ballet.

If she does not use that position to create a deep understanding of what classical dance is, the beauty of it, the art of it, not just the art of the body, posing, when dancing is the point, then she is just typifying dancers, and putting them into a pigeon-hole (even further) of being models, gays, skeletons, bunheads, a lower-than-average intelligence person who doesn’t really contribute to the world politically or economically. Ok, she must spend money, but it is sort of veering into a wanton, self-aggrandizing parade of cvichy photos about nothing really, but her. Shallow, but meant to be seen as intensely serious. Hype.

She is interesting, and though she tries to sublimate her late start, not recommending it for girls generally, because “she could just do things,” I have to say, despite that she must have worked very hard to become a dancer in many ways-so use that, remember that. To me, her background, her mother,  her poverty, her age, are her main charms, not her background,color, or body-type. All of those things just add to what could be, but sadly, is not. It just seems that she has yet to strike her own style, depth or soul in her dancing, consistently. She inevitably has one, but it is not always apparent when she is dancing. She is just the girl who can’t say, “no.” She is possibly a new-kind of dancer: the thinking kind, the business woman-I almost expect to see her in a racy sitcom about two girls from well-off families who go noodling through America’s heartland looking for work on farms. She is hot, but what happened to her commitment to ballet-to art? She is smart enough to make her own way, create her own image, and she is trying very hard. If she is volleying for those roles, why not speak to the producers of the next Bond film? Who says dancers can’t be sex symbols?

But true classical ballerinas are dancers first and foremost. I am not convinced that Misty is really impassioned about dancing, as she is about the vehicle for other self-promotion. Not since Isadora Duncan or Pavlova, have we seen someone so photographed, even Margot Fonteyn did not hold this allure and she was much photographed-however, they were purely, and amazingly soulful dancers-artists. Margot Fonteyn also devoted her life in a sense to her paralyzed and philandering husband for which she should have received the Victoria Cross. Isadora Duncan supported her whole family and theirs. Pavlova was difficult, but an ambassador of ballet, and constantly seen dancing, beautifully.

So what if Misty doesn’t have that finesse, yet, but she isn’t really sending the message that she is. Her message doesn’t seem to have very much to do with classical ballet, and is somewhere between modern and ballet, but not quite. I cannot blame her for being greedy-I would be too. But it seems like she uses it to create her own platform, totally unrelated to dance. She is interesting to the media, but what is interesting to the media, may not be the best thing for the future of real ballet, or popular for very long. Sometimes less is more, like Leontyne Price, Geraldine Blunden, Judith Jamison, and the list goes on. They each devoted their lives to their art, first. Honorably. Because they did this, they did not have time to pose and do pr. Is Misty done with dance? Has she reached her pinnacle?

You have to make a choice. If she started a school, one in each state, for the training of young dancers, and used her persona to at least train others in a totally classical program, with emphasis on acting, acrobatics, real pure ballet training, paying for their medical bills, shoes and dancewear-in other words, put her money where her mouth is, I would be her biggest fan. Maybe she will one day, like Debbie Allen, but the time to do this, to use your power for good, is now. While you are hot, and while you can use your power within the current political administration. Better hurry up before the conservatives rush in. Create dance education reform, rip a page out of Jacques d’Ambois’s book-read. Reading is a good thing for celebrities to do-show people they read! Not just for people of color-we all are-but for male and female, American or non, young or old, but for dance-your savior! That is really where I think her strength lies. It is just that this is not the best, most productive and valuable use for her site. She needs to reappraise her best use.

General Dance Discussion

Welcome Back! I hope you has an enjoyable summer (program!)

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There is no end to what you can learn about ballet, the world of dance, or art. However, it is a subject that you can just jump right into, start anywhere, and I believe,come out a fan, feeling part of a group and inspired. No matter what you do. That is because I feel most people dance. Not if you are right in the middle of the U.S. where for most of your life, especially for guys, dance is not cool. People do not know how to feel about their bodies sometimes, or are not comfortable in expressing themselves through movement. But in most cultures, there is dancing. Balanchine (I think) once said, he did not know any dancers who were born dancing, but rather the ones he knew were trained and worked hard, or something like that.

Well, we moved. Each year we do this. Moving is renewal-for me. My children are not always so adaptable. Perhaps they rue this because I do it. My mother was mostly a sty-at-home. There was security (and boredom) in that. But out of boredom often comes the ability to amuse oneself. For me, moving is life affirming, starting over with a new perspective, but also the actual movement means something to me-like Chocolat. Part of that is probably the artist in me: needing to get around and view life from a different point, see if it goes better? I think Balanchine also said, he did not want dancers who wanted to dance, he wanted dancers that needed to dance. Not so much, but rather, I am a glutton, getting the better, the fresh and the new while I can. This may make me seem a bit of a moving addict, although I know I do not escape my problems this way. I bring them with me in a bundle and my new life becomes my old one, no more or less complicated, but I do constantly have a different view. Part of this can be the dancer in me, too. As you move, or change places, you automatically (should) get a brand new, if fleeting, impression. the key, like in a leap, is to hold that impression, long enough to feel it, write about it, or paint it, maybe even record it.  At my age, the trick is just to remember it….sometimes. We never really lose our vanity! Vanity is actually important, like pride, but that is not the point today.

Summer programs are important if you can put them into perspective and they do count as experiences. Other experiences might include performing, auditioning, learning variations, traveling, taking a master class. Having a boyfriend. Going to a football game. Learning a language. It is important if you learn anything from it at all, and we do learn something from everything. Such is the human paper. Never blank.

I think that a fair amount of time to savor an experience is desirable (usually)-you learn more. Living somewhere for a year may be preferable to visiting for a few days or a couple of weeks. Sometimes an experience could have been better if you think about. Moving is not necessarily a good experience. I always look for a step up, or a feature that has been missed or desired before. Usually, I find one. Perhaps this is only my optimism. There is not time to do many of the things I would like to do and my paper is pretty full, has a lot of lines crossed out, revisions, carets, and so on. There is a lot in the waste can, but I am always looking to pull it out and make sure I cannot use it, really throw it away. Not too much, for me is truly, worthless.

My daughter did not go to a summer program this year. She did not want to. This may be a result of her experience at her summer program last year. We did not have the money and she tends to not want something if we cannot afford it. A teacher told me that once, and I have ever since been thinking about it-to want, to not want. I think it is a very socialist view. What is worth pursuing in life if you teach yourself not to want? Life itself. She is different from me.The artistic process is different for everyone. It is up to her to find her own process. And yet, it is shattering in a way that I cannot share this always. My magic mirror is cloudy and I cannot always see, nor will she let me see, into her mind, her desires, her feelings. This summer, I have come to accept that. In fact, in some small way, it is a relief.

Sometimes I move around the house with my laptop to find a comfortable place to write. Sometimes it takes me days or weeks to resume writing because I must experience life in order to have new ideas at my disposal. Like music performance, dance performance can be repetitive. But too much repetition can be harmful in dance, as in sports. Perhaps too much repetition in art is also not good for the mind in a less obvious but equally important way. The mind and the body get a new perspective from a summer program. The fan of Aerosmith or Brittny Spears wants to hear a certain song, time and time again. For the fan this is a memorable moment, but for the artist, this process of fulfillment might get to be boring. Dancing with a certain teacher, school or even a part in a ballet, might be boring after a while, or the dancer might need to move in another direction for awhile to come back and breathe new life into that activity or role. For us, that may not be the issue. For us us, it may have been that too many classes with certain teachers might have been making it difficult for her Achilles tendon to heal, so less had to be more.

My daughter’s journey is a slow one, and each day or month, there seems to be progress. As parents we do not always feel this is moving along fast enough, or we feel the need to constantly pressure our children to work harder, achieve certain levels of accomplishment, but in retrospect, I have learned to back off, and let her be. I feel this summer she has learned to work smarter-not so much or so hard, but more to the point. She is learning to have confidence by trusting her knowledge and listening to her body. Her technique seems to be good, her extensions are better and higher, but what has really bloomed is her sense of what her own artistry might be, and although she hasn’t nailed it yet, it has presented itself and she is pondering it. This is an exciting moment for me to watch. She has enjoyed her sleep. I really see that. Her Achilles tendon seems to be healed, but occasionally there is a twinge on the sides, especially before she is warm. She has eaten more, presumably in preparation for growth. There were days at the lake, the beach, the movies, the pool, and about 5 ballet classes per week, plus her privates, when they were not cancelled by someone else who was enjoying his summer. There were books, movies, television shows, talks with her brothers, family time, and importantly, the discovery that if she cannot be a dancer, she wants to be a writer. There is a certain maturity about her, a focus and awareness, beginning to develop, and I hope none of this impedes or is a path for her to stop dancing, but rather to include in her world of dancing other parts of life and experiences that will round her into a lovely and soulful woman. I see she is becoming one right before my eyes.

I am glad I got to see this this summer firsthand, even if there were a few arguments, spats or bouts of laziness. I realize she has worked for this time off and she needed to rest. But I see as she begins classes again, there was growth, her own, and the consciousness of her maturity and the artistry required for a rewarding career in dance. Whether she has one or not, who knows, but she will appreciate more that life is part of an artist, a dancer, and that these things matter, not just ballet class or a summer of adventure away from home. Perhaps from viewing performances she will see more of the person in the dancer, and what they personally bring to the role-not just technique.

We all want our children to have opportunities, to go places and be a part of the world of dance, theater, acting, etc., but we must remember that to be truly happy we must be able to find happiness within ourselves, and not expect others to be the entertainment committee or to become something else just because we are a part of another world for a short time. All of these experiences do add up to who we are, and good or bad, they mold us. There is no hurry I have found, as these opportunities are always around us, within us, and sometimes as we center ourselves and a new perspective is possible without ever leaving home. But it is important to remind our children, wherever they go, that our artist home is always within us and we take it wherever we go.

Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life, it is life itself.

-Havelock Ellis