Once again, Misty Copeland is making history.
The African-American ballerina has been promoted to the rank of principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre. She is the first black female principal dancer in the company's 75-year history.
Copeland joined ABT's corps de ballet in 2001, later becoming a soloist at the company in 2007. In 2014, she told the New Yorker that her next goal was "to become the first African-American principal dancer with ABT." One year later, here we are.
[seealso slug="ballet-diversity"]
By @juliekentofficial via @RepostWhiz app: Exciting promotions at ABT this morning!! Misty Copeland, Principal Dancer!!! #MistyCopeland #ballerina #weloveyou (#RepostWhiz app) A video posted by Misty Copeland (@mistyonpointe) on Jun 30, 2015 at 10:19am PDT
It's been a year of firsts for the famous dancer, who also became the first black ballerina at ABT to star as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. At the Kennedy Center in D.C., she and co-star Brooklyn Mack became the first African-Americans to star in Swan Lake together at the historic performance institution.
Earlier this year, Copeland landed the cover of Time magazine, speaking candidly about her personal life.
"The way that dance came into my life was very unexpected," she said in an interview. "I was 13 years old, living in a motel with my single parent, my mother, and five of my siblings."
The dancer was also very candid about her experiences as a ballet dancer of color.
"[A ballerina] doesn't have to be a white woman who's rail-thin...she can look like the world," Copeland says.
Copeland released a memoir last year, titled Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina. In it, she details her early love of ballet and the challenges she faced due to the color of her skin. In an excerpt, she details her difficult early days at ABT, when she felt as though she would never be accepted.
"The bitter truth is I felt that I wasn’t being fully accepted because I was black, that leaders of the company just didn’t see me starring in more classical roles, despite my elegant line and flow," she writes.
Fast forward to 2015, and that line couldn't be farther from the truth.