Misty Copeland’s on Pointe! Five Surprising Facts About the New On the Town Star

Big news, sailors! Misty Copeland, who was just named the first-ever African-American female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, will make her Broadway debut as Ivy in On the Town beginning August 26. While the stunning ballerina is all grace and poise on stage, Copeland is a tough-as-nails dancer who has risen to the top in the cutthroat world of professional ballet, and her life is even more fascinating than the movie Black Swan. From growing up in a motel to secretly dancing on a broken leg, Copeland’s life is just begging to be made into a movie. Check out the five most surprising facts we learned about On the Town's new Miss Turnstiles.


1. She grew up in a motel
Unlike her On the Town predecessor Megan Fairchild, Copeland wasn’t groomed to become a ballerina from a young age. She grew up sharing a tiny room at the Sunset Inn with her mother and five siblings in Gardena, CA. When she began taking formal lessons at age 13, she practiced using the motel's metal railing as a ballet barre.


2. Ballet tore her family apart
When Copeland was 15, she was caught in the middle of a custody battle between her dance teachers and her mother. While her instructors Cynthia and Patrick Bradley tried to nurture her ballet career and provide her with a stable family life, Copeland’s mother wanted to pull her out of ballet altogether. Copeland ran away and attempted to emancipate herself, but after going to trial, was returned to the care of her mother.


3. Prince pushed her to succeed
When she recieved an out-of-the-blue phone call from Grammy-winning pop star Prince in 2009, Copeland was shocked. “I was literally still waking up,” she told New York magazine. “What? Prince who?” The next day, the ballerina flew to L.A. to star in Prince’s music video “Crimson and Clover” and went on tour with him. Hey, it’s always nice to have a guy in crushed purple velvet looking out for you!


4. A commercial put her on the map
Despite being a superstar in the ballet world, Copeland’s career exploded in 2014 when she became a spokeswoman (spokesdancer?) for Under Armour. In an ad campaign that paid far more than her ballet salary, Copeland dances up a storm as a voiceover reads a rejection letter she recieved as a young girl. #inspiration


5. Broken bones won’t stop her
After being cast in The Firebird at the Metropolitan Opera House, Copeland began to feel pain in her left leg. Determined to make it to opening night, the ballerina ignored her pain and didn’t tell anyone she was suffering. After the performance, she was diagnosed with six stress fractures in her tibia. Something tells us this new Broadway star won’t be calling out sick when she gets the sniffles.