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Misty Copeland


Helene

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Woetzel often asks dancers to perform things that are out of their comfort zone. It will be interesting to see what Copeland will be performing. Also, as has been stated above, the dancers at that festival participate in a number of outreach programs, discussions as well as Q&A's.

I wouldn't find it odd for Woetzel to invite any ABT soloist, Misty included, so I'm not surprised he asked her.

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According to the Vail website, "We are excited to welcome back Misty Copeland for the 2015 Vail International Dance Festival! We've missed her since she was here in 2011, and can't wait to have her back on the Festival stage for the International Evenings of Dance!"

She's been there before. Woetzel has a history of cultivating artists and asking them to return.

People in Denver rarely, if ever, have a chance to see any of the balllet dancers who perform at Vail unless they travel to do so.

Many invited dancers do community outreach as part of their stint in Vail because it's integral to and integrated into the other work that Woetzel and Watts do. The good news is that she's getting more experience in this specialty, because not everyone does, and from my experience in Seattle, while people have good intentions, that doesn't make them automatically very good at it.

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For Woetzel to book Copeland sounds like a no-brainer.

Another liberal-minded arts world type gives Misty a platform......

Such cynicism. Copeland’s an up-and-coming dancer, an African-American dancer, and a dancer much in the news nowadays. Those are three good reasons to invite her back.

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For Woetzel to book Copeland sounds like a no-brainer.

Another liberal-minded arts world type gives Misty a platform......

Such cynicism. Copeland’s an up-and-coming dancer, an African-American dancer, and a dancer much in the news nowadays. Those are three good reasons to invite her back.

Cynicism, indeed.

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I saw Misty tonight on the tv program One on One with Bud Mishkin (Time Warner Cable, NY1). Not sure when the show repeats. It may also be available on the internet. There was some rehearsal footage with Eric Tamm regarding the upcoming Nutcracker performances. Otherwise, it was a complete re-hash of the same story she's been repeating over and over again elsewhere.

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Cannot believe they used that photo. Hopefully she'll be wearing something more conservative during the mentoring sessions.

&

The photo to which KFW is alluding was contained in the link earlier in this threat to the cocoafab website, announcing Misty's new Oxygen reality show.

It's right here.

Cover up that nipple, strumpet!

OMG, had i been a mother, i would under NO circumstances allow my children to be near a person wearing such an outfit. Moreover, a ballerina (imho) should be a person of a bit of a better refined taste and manners that a typical person.

Never fell in love with her as a dancer (her body is too bulky to my taste), but with more (untasteful & politicized) PR done with her name - the less insentive i have to support or be interested in it (but i couldn't help reacting to that (OMG so untasteful) photo)

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imho (as the person who hasn't done any media interviews), an interviewee can always tell that he/she doesn't want to discuss or emphasis certain topics. And wouldn’t it be subject to litigations and law-suits if a media outlet publishes something (said at interview) to which the interviewee hasn’t granted OK? Just asking

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Cannot believe they used that photo. Hopefully she'll be wearing something more conservative during the mentoring sessions.

&

The photo to which KFW is alluding was contained in the link earlier in this threat to the cocoafab website, announcing Misty's new Oxygen reality show.

It's right here.

Cover up that nipple, strumpet!

OMG, had i been a mother, i would under NO circumstances allow my children to be near a person wearing such an outfit. Moreover, a ballerina (imho) should be a person of a bit of a better refined taste and manners that a typical person.

Never fell in love with her as a dancer (her body is too bulky to my taste), but with more (untasteful & politicized) PR done with her name - the less insentive i have to support or be interested in it (but i couldn't help reacting to that (OMG so untasteful) photo)

Well said. I respect other, differing opinions here, but yours is one I share.

Tapfan, I think interviewers are just doing their jobs by asking about what the general public is interested in.

dirac, there is a big and obvious difference between saying someone’s being a poor role model and calling her a strumpet.

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imho (as the person who hasn't done any media interviews), an interviewee can always tell that he/she doesn't want to discuss or emphasis certain topics. And wouldn’t it be subject to litigations and law-suits if a media outlet publishes something (said at interview) to which the interviewee hasn’t granted OK? Just asking

As someone who does conduct interviews, I'm sorry to say your views are slightly off-base. In general, the subject is responsible for what they say. As the interviewer, you have an assignment from your publication, and that will govern what you ask. When you ask for access, you usually say what your goal is ("I'm doing a preview of the show," "I'm writing a profile of the company," etc) You'll get access or you won't, but it's very rare that you enter an interview with an embargo on some subject -- this happens only with subjects who are a premium interview.

Litigation happens when someone prints something untrue, not just unflattering. If the subject doesn't want something in print, their best defense is to not say anything about it in the interview.

Right now, most artists and organizations are thrilled for whatever coverage they get -- the number of outlets for dance writing has been shrinking for some time. Copeland is articulate, skilled and distinctive. She is, as the old saying goes, good copy.

The NY1 piece is a good, general reader/viewer essay. For those of us that follow dance closely, it may feel a bit thin, and we may feel that there's nothing new in it, but the fact is, this piece is not intended for us. For the vast majority of people who read or see this, it will be an introduction to Copeland and to the issue of diversity in ballet. Yes, she's done that interview before, and she will be doing it many more times -- this is still new news to many people. I'm thrilled that there has been this much coverage -- she's getting attention for the artform in places that haven't covered anything dance-oriented in ages. Copeland is doing an excellent job at a difficult task.

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Cannot believe they used that photo. Hopefully she'll be wearing something more conservative during the mentoring sessions.

OMG, had i been a mother, i would under NO circumstances allow my children to be near a person wearing such an outfit. Moreover, a ballerina (imho) should be a person of a bit of a better refined taste and manners that a typical person.

"Dieu de la danse" very recently circulated this (older) photo of Alessandra Ferri:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=645147752263177&set=a.285736424870980.62327.100003038742854&type=1&theater

I'm not trying to talk anyone into this sort of thing, just noting that other ballerinas - and much loved and respected ones - have posed at least as revealingly. I say nothing of Guillem's nude photo shoot...In fact, I've seen/heard of Guillem taking flack for this sort of thing, but not Ferri. (Though on FB some people are now commenting on the photo in less than flattering terms.)

I wouldn't expect Mishkin to do anything other than cover the 'same old...same old' in an interview with a ballerina, and yes, as commented above, much of his audience would not have heard Copeland talk about her career elsewhere. I, too, could wish otherwise but repetition is part of the reality of the celebrity-artist interview circuit...I remember watching Elijah Wood get asked to tell the story of how he interviewed for Frodo at the time the second Lord of the Rings Movie came out--he could barely hide his boredom with repeating the story over a year after he had been telling it on every single talk show and in every print outlet imaginable. Letterman had Makarova on his show years after her defection, but the defection story was all he wanted to discuss; ditto (as best I remember) for Merv Griffin and Nureyev. For that matter, how many times has Nichelle Nichols been asked to tell the story of how Martin Luther King asked her to stay on as Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek--even decades after that show was off the air? That's the story people want to hear especially if they aren't Star Trek fans; I have no idea if Mishkin is a ballet fan, but he is certainly not interviewing for ballet fans.

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dirac, there is a big and obvious difference between saying someone’s being a poor role model and calling her a strumpet.

Not necessarily for purposes of facetiousness, but I'm quite happy to substitute "nipple-displaying wench."

Cute.

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Cannot believe they used that photo. Hopefully she'll be wearing something more conservative during the mentoring sessions.

OMG, had i been a mother, i would under NO circumstances allow my children to be near a person wearing such an outfit. Moreover, a ballerina (imho) should be a person of a bit of a better refined taste and manners that a typical person.

"Dieu de la danse" very recently circulated this (older) photo of Alessandra Ferri:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=645147752263177&set=a.285736424870980.62327.100003038742854&type=1&theater

I'm not trying to talk anyone into this sort of thing, just noting that other ballerinas - and much loved and respected ones - have posed at least as revealingly. I say nothing of Guillem's nude photo shoot...In fact, I've seen/heard of Guillem taking flack for this sort of thing, but not Ferri. (Though on FB some people are now commenting on the photo in less than flattering terms.)

And lets not even talk about what the boys of ballet get up to...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/141/320568721_f8724497be.jpg

http://boysinballet.tumblr.com/post/74239600266/thenextfamous-tiit-helimets-san-francisco

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/4c/39/89/4c398900b4fff370cf84c9ae6eac880b.jpg

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I could have sworn men (especially male ballet dancers) go completely barechested quite frequently, displaying their nipples, without anyone suggesting that this implies promiscuity or prostitution ("strumpet", defined in the OED as " A debauched or unchaste woman, a harlot, prostitute", "wench" defined as "a girl or prostitute").

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I, too, could wish otherwise but repetition is part of the reality of the celebrity-artist interview circuit...I remember watching Elijah Wood get asked to tell the story of how he interviewed for Frodo at the time the second Lord of the Rings Movie came out--he could barely hide his boredom with repeating the story over a year after he had been telling it on every single talk show and in every print outlet imaginable. ... That's the story people want to hear ...

Merce Cunningham would come through Seattle with his company every few years (he was from the Northwest and studied here early on) and at every single Q/A or lecture I went to, he was asked by someone in the audience if it was true that the dance was created separately from the music. And every single time he patiently explained his process to the audience. I'm sure he did this everywhere he went, for the majority of his career, but I still remember how gracious he was. Every single time.

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I could have sworn men (especially male ballet dancers) go completely barechested quite frequently, displaying their nipples, without anyone suggesting that this implies promiscuity or prostitution ("strumpet", defined in the OED as " A debauched or unchaste woman, a harlot, prostitute", "wench" defined as "a girl or prostitute").

Let it be noted that "strumpet" and "wench" are dirac's sarcastic caricatures of my own thoughts. In other words, they bear no relation to anything anyone here has actually suggested.

Also, Copeland’s hardly the first dancer to display herself, but she may be the first to do so while claiming to want to be a role model to young girls, and that has been the context of the actual criticism.
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I could have sworn men (especially male ballet dancers) go completely barechested quite frequently, displaying their nipples, without anyone suggesting that this implies promiscuity or prostitution ("strumpet", defined in the OED as " A debauched or unchaste woman, a harlot, prostitute", "wench" defined as "a girl or prostitute").

Let it be noted that "strumpet" and "wench" are dirac's sarcastic caricatures of my own thoughts. In other words, they bear no relation to anything anyone here has actually suggested.

Also, Copeland’s hardly the first dancer to display herself, but she may be the first to do so while claiming to want to be a role model to young girls, and that has been the context of the actual criticism.

Well if they are sarcastic caricatures they bear some relation... I don't think it was specific to only *your* reaction, though I won't speak for Dirac.

Moreover, I would note that young girls have seen nipples before and are not generally horrified by them. They do not (yet) see them as sexualized things. They have them, and many have fed from them fairly recently.

Tempest in a teapot.

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