Felt more like a PR exercise

If I watch it it will only be for the breasts.




“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."

Jonaloin, you really nailed it! You are spot-on right, on every point you made.

I too, wondered what happened to her family. Maybe they no longer supported her? And as you said, if one is to believe the "documentary", Misty never seemed to have any problems based on race. Everyone seemed to like her at the ballet companies where performed...even being patient with her as she made a comeback after her surgery.

Maybe there is more to this behind the scenes that wasn't brought to light in this film, because it was just like you said, more like a PR exercise.

Thanks for noticing that her publicist was one of the Executive Producers--yep! Very telling....

And thank you for recommending the film, First Position; I'll have to check that out.

Oh and I haven't heard of Misty either until I saw this film on Netflix last night.

There was an article in Elle magazine about Misty life.
Alot of tough things were glossed over. Always moving apartment to apartment.
Living in a motel, sleeping on the floor. At some point living with her ballet (Cynthia) teacher, who saw her talent. giving her stability and focus to realize her dream.
Legal battles with mother.
Many things she experienced
were still painful. I would think difficult and complicated.
Ballet dancers for all their work and suffering don't make much money. They get a weekly rate. She makes about 80 thousand dollars a year as a principal in New York City It's about the LOVE of it.
PR why not. I think the celebration is the focus of this documentary.

I agree with you. I finished watching the movie and all those questions lingered in my mind.

Another thing that struck me is how engaged she was with the camera at the beginning and then, towards the middle of the movie, she becomes very detached and doesn't talk at all. The camera follows her everywhere, and she doesn't say a word. Also, the whole chiropractor scene felt unnecessary and didn't add much to the movie.

Regardless, I enjoyed it because I love ballet and applaud her for all her well-deserved achievements.

I think the filmmakers wanted to focus more on the adult Misty, and not go over the old ground of the travails of her family and her during her youth, and the rancor between her mother and her first real ballet teachers. That stuff had been covered somewhat in the press and on TV at the time, and she tells quite a bit about it in her memoir, LIFE IN MOTION: AN UNLIKELY BALLERINA. She has also spoken about it more than a few times, I think, in interviews and public speaking occasions.

The film does feel very PR-ish (though I enjoyed it, and felt it had a lot that was worthwhile), but that's very much to be expected, when something involves Misty C. It's too bad that, over the last few years, that whole promotion engine has gone so far into overdrive, and has caused a fair bit of backlash, even from people who, like me, enjoy and admire much about her work (not to mention some of the folks who decidedly do not, and who resent her pushing, and being promoted ahead of other dancers they feel more worthy, from artistic and technical standpoints). The biggest annoyance, to me and many others, is the great myth that was built up about Misty C. being so alone, being the only, the first, etc., re. black female ballet dancers, and the way it tended (and does still, to a degree, though they clearly seem to be at least trying to rectify this somewhat) to obliterate the fact and the memories of so many others. Definitely not enough others, since there's no question that there's a far way to go, to have reasonable racial/ethnic diversity in ballet, generally, but those others were and are there, nevertheless, and it gets annoying when one goes looking for info on one or more of them, and only finds reams of photos of and articles about, Misty Copeland. Here's a very worthwhile and interesting page about this unfortunate phenomenon: http://www.mybodymyimage.com/the-misty-rious-case-of-the-vanishing-ballerinas-of-color-where-have-all-the-others-gone





Just make a movie that makes me care, one way or another. I'm open.