Arts and Culture

Black Girl Magic: Misty Copeland Inspires Bay Area Black Ballerina Angela Watson

Published

9 years ago

December 27, 2017

Trailblazer Ballerina Misty Copeland Inspires Black Ballerina Angela Watson who performs as “Clara” and “Dragonfly” in the 2017 San Francisco Nutcracker Ballet.

Humble and graceful, Misty Copeland took the stage at the Nourse Theater for a fireside chat with Laurene Powell Jobs on Monday, December 18. A brief video shared the event’s purpose – a benefit for the Gugulethu Ballet Project, an organization that brings the art of classical ballet to the youth of South African townships.

The sold-out event featured an insightful Copeland who candidly spoke of growing up awkward, underprivileged, quiet and unsure of where to fit in. During the 90-minute talk, Copeland shared her swan dive into the world of ballet only to emerge as the first African-American principal ballerina at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre (ABT).

The heartfelt discussion was a delight and pure inspiration for anyone, especially young ballerinas. Born Misty Danielle Copeland September 10, 1982 in Missouri, she was raised with four siblings in San Pedro, California. Through the Boys and Girls Club she was exposed to ballet at 13, which is late for most. However, Copeland was just getting a taste of her true destiny becoming a child prodigy just two years later. To everyone’s amazement, Copeland’s physique and determinate enabled her to accomplish in months what most dancers require years to master, and by the tender age of 15 she was an award- winning starlet.

Fast forward to today and Copeland is an American ballet dancer for ABT, one of only three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT’s 75-year history.

In 1997, Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award as the best dancer in Southern California. After two summer workshops with ABT, she became a member of ABT’s Studio Company in 2000 and its corps de ballet in 2001, and became an ABT soloist in 2007. As a soloist from 2007 to mid-2015, she continued to perfect her technique.
During the talk, Copeland recanted the coveted opportunity to perform Firebird, a milestone in her career and again being the very first Black woman in the role.

The outpouring of African American support was enormous. Copeland, well aware of the magnitude for all black ballerinas and the community graciously accepted the role of unicorn, being the first, the trailblazer, the one paving the path of color in ballet. “I remember my colleagues asking me if they were my family members.” Copeland was able to power through opening night, but she was soon faced reality; a severe injury – 6 stress fractures to her tibia, requiring a plate to be screwed in and a year of rehabilitation. Copeland came back even more powerful and at 35, she says she’s not just yet ready to retire her pointe shoes.

Copeland was named in 2015 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, appearing on its cover. She performed on Broadway in On the Town, toured as a featured dancer for Prince and appeared on the reality television shows A Day in the Life and So You Think You Can Dance.
Copeland said it was an honor to work with Prince and that the tour exposed many to ballet for the first time. “Touring and appearing in Prince’s video was an honor. Prince was supportive, and always told me that it was ok to be different.

As a sought after speaker, Copeland takes honor in giving back to the next generation of dancers as a mentor. Prior to the talk, Misty met with young Black ballerina, Angela Watson, who stars as “Clara” in the San Francisco Ballet production of the Nutcracker. Watson, a 4.0 student at the Oakland School for the Arts was excited to meet her inspiration.

During the Black girl magic moment, Watson took photos with Copeland and received an autographed copy of her latest book “Ballerina Body.” The day also marked the 125th anniversary of the world premiere of the Nutcracker in St. Petersburg, Russia where it all began.

“I was so excited to meet her,” said Watson, a sixth level student at the San Francisco Ballet Company. “She has achieved something I have been working hard to achieve. When I first read about her I was inspired to work harder.” Watson has been featured in the media and her style and physique at her age are comparable to her muse.

Watson, began her training in classical ballet, at age 11, at Oakland School for the Arts (“OSA”) School of Dance under Reginald Ray Savage, Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer. After training in technique for the first half of the 2014-2015 school year, Watson was authorized to throw her ballet slippers into the National Ballet Tours of 2016 arena. She came out a winner, receiving 7 Summer Intensive training offers of 7 auditions with the most prominent ballet schools in America; American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance, Boston Ballet, Joffrey Chicago, Joffrey NYC, School of American Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet School. She was also awarded 3 merit-based scholarships.

Watson chose the 2016 Summer Intensive program at S.F. Ballet School and after training with SFBS for 3 weeks, Watson was invited to join its 2016-2017-year round training program in recognition of her potential to achieve a professional career in ballet. Within weeks, Watson was selected as one of the few ever African-American ballerinas to dance the leading character role of Clara in the 74-year-old first full length American Nutcracker for SF Ballet Company’s 2016 holiday season where she danced into the hearts of little and big hopeful ballerinas across the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area.

While Watson enjoyed attending a second Summer Intensive with SFB, she has been appointed to the elevated Girls Level 6 on scholarship for 2017-2018 year round.
After receiving an outstanding 9 Summer Intensive 2017 training offers, Watson will now dance her way East to New York City attending the Russian American Federations Bolshoi Ballet Academy. On a merit-based scholarship, supported by U.S. Dept. of Education and the Youth America Grand Prix, Watson will now enter the ballet world’s version of the Olympics, where she will also learn to speak Russian.

Through the holiday season, Watson performs the Nutcracker at the War Memorial Opera House as “Clara” December 20th and 23rd at 7:00 p.m. and as Dragonfly, December 22, 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Next week she performs as Clara December 27 at 2:00 p.m. and December 29 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Dragonfly performances are Christmas Eve at 11:00 a.m.; December 28, 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and a final performance December 30 at 11: 00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Along with Angela, follow three other OSA students, Daniil Shaposhnikov (Mouse), Pilar Ortega(Dragonfly) and Angelina Williams (Dragonfly) from Oakland School for the Arts’ School of Dance to the 2017 San Francisco Nutcracker Ballet’s Land of Dreams. For more information visit www.sfballet.org

Captions

Angela Watson, an Oakland School for the Arts ballerina, proudly shares an autographed copy of Misty Copeland’s latest book “Ballerina Body”

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Lower Bottom Playaz Presents Lee Blessing’s ‘Going to St. Ives’

Played by Dr. ayodele nzinga, May N’Kame, the mother of a deadly African dictator, travels to England to see Dr. Cora Gage (Teresa Foss) about medical treatment for her failing eyesight. But what she really wants is a poison to assassinate her son. Gage is then put in a personal dilemma to either uphold her vow to ‘do no harm,’ or help put an end to the atrocities the dictator visits on his people.

Published

3 weeks ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Oakland’s oldest North American African theater company presents a story of race, women, violence, and empire.

By Cat Brooks, Special to The Post

The Lower Bottom Playaz 27^th season will kick off on July 9 with “Going to St. Ives,” a play by Lee Blessing.

Directed by playwright, actress, and community advocate Cat Brooks, the play by Lee Blessing is the story of two impressive women brought together by the personal and divided by the political, as both seek to accomplish the greatest good.

“While the Empire’s location is fictional, a very real genocide is happening in the Congo right now that many of us are ignoring,” Brooks observed. “We set this play there in hopes of utilizing theater to make audiences aware of injustices moving in places and amongst people that mainstream media omits from its headlines.

“In these times, it is more important than ever that theater do more than just entertain. It must tell tales that ignite us into action.”

Also explored in Going to St. Ives are themes of motherhood and sacrifice. What does it cost mothers to raise sons only to lose them to the violence of the world? What experiences are shared amongst mothers across race, class, and country?

“Going to St. Ives examines the weight of privilege against the cost of ‘being responsible’ in a world carved by colonialism, greed, and loss in a high-stakes chess game between two women with only one thing in common,” said nzinga who is also the artistic director of Lower Bottom Playaz.

The play was first performed in 1997 in Seattle, eventually enjoying a highly praised off-Broadway run in New York in 2005.

For this production, Lower Bottom Playaz is partnering with non-government organizations that focus on raising awareness and providing support to displaced refugees across the diaspora, emphasizing community solidarity and collective action.

“Going to St. Ives” premieres on July 9 at BAM House in the Sister Thea Theater, 1540 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612. All performances are scheduled through July 26 on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets and more information, please visit http://www.lowerbottomplayaz.com/. Reservations: 510 332-1319, leave a message.

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Activism

‘The Oakland Street Academy Saved My Life’

The first time a teacher pulled up a chair to sit next to me to help me out, I panicked because no adult had ever sat so close to me in any kind of a caring or helping way. My English teacher, Kitty (Epstein), would make the biggest impact in my life. I didn’t know then what it meant to have a teacher who would care about me enough to spend her precious time with me even through all of my frustration about learning and thinking the whole time I couldn’t learn anything because I thought I was stupid.

Published

3 weeks ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Mural at the Emiliano Zapata Oakland Street Academy, an alternative high school in the Oakland Unified School District, located at 417 29th St. in Oakland. Phone: (510) 874-3630.

By Ze Segundo, Special to The Post

This is an autobiographical statement by a former Street Academy student who overcame many obstacles in the1970s, attended S.F. State University, and built a successful life for herself.

I was born and raised in Oakland, living in a household with a single mother and eight children. My life was chaotic: I never felt loved, never hearing the words, “I love you.”

I was 4 years old when all of us were sent to foster homes. There, my little sister and I were tortured. I believe we were there a little over a year.

When we finally returned home to our mother, she had a new husband who was very abusive to all of us including my mother.

I and my other sisters were sexually abused by two uncles and my big brother. I remember my uncle choking me and telling me if I told anyone, he would kill me and my little brother – so I didn’t tell. I was terrified of him. I tried to stay away from him as much as possible, but that’s kind of hard to do when a sexual predator lives with you.

My mother would have parties on the weekends where there would be many people drinking and fighting. The police were often at my home. I hated Sunday mornings because my mother would make us kids clean up after the parties. The house had the stench of cigarettes and booze.

Having to clean up other people’s vomit made me sick to my stomach. This is when I started to drink myself. Taking sips of leftover alcohol in glasses and beer cans. That would be the start of my alcoholism.

I started cutting myself when I was 11 years old and didn’t know why. I think it was because it made me feel something different and somehow made whatever I was feeling go away for the moment.

I didn’t have many friends and didn’t have any social skills. I was very shy and withdrawn. In my early teen I couldn’t look people in the eyes. If I was walking down the street and someone was walking towards me, I would purposely cross the street, so I didn’t have to have contact with them.

I was terrified of the world around me. I didn’t even talk to my mother much because I didn’t know what kind of mood she would be in. I learned to stay silent and stay away from her.

My grandmother lived in Hayward; my sister, brother and I took a bus from Oakland to attend junior high school there. Because I didn’t have any social skills, the kids would tease me and bully me. I had to fight a lot, so much that my brother and I were kicked out; they didn’t want any of us in their schools.

After we were kicked out of the school district, I tried to attend a junior high in Oakland, but the noise in the classroom overwhelmed me. The sounds rumbled in my ears.

Again, I was bullied and teased. So, I stopped going to school. I would leave the house with my brothers and sisters but didn’t set foot into any classroom after that. I just wandered the streets until it was time to go home.

It was a very chaotic home life, and I was a severely abused child, overwhelmed with everything around me.

When I was 15, a social worker talked to my mother about sending me to Oakland Street Academy. My mother thought it was a continuation school, where the worst students went.

I didn’t want to go to Street Academy, fearful of being bullied again, but I was tired of hanging out in the street all day. I thought the Street Academy was strange, a school that took over an old furniture store building. It was an open floor plan with partitions that sectioned off classes.

During class, we could hear the buses go by and people talking as they were walking by. I was still painfully shy and withdrawn. I would show up to school early, so I didn’t have to walk past other students in the classroom. I didn’t speak to any students and barely spoke to the teachers. Even when class was going on, I would sit across the room in a small chair and table between two lockers.

I isolated myself from the rest of the class, not really knowing why, but that’s where I sat. I had a third-grade reading level at age 15 and couldn’t spell much at all.

Kitty told me that I could learn, and that there were no stupid students. I remember one time a small group of students walked to fast food restaurants just to read the menu because reading anything is better than reading nothing at all.

Kitty didn’t give up on me – so, I didn’t give up on myself.

School was difficult for me because so many things were going on at home. It was hard for me to focus, but the teachers were really patient with me. Street Academy empowered students by teaching Chicano studies and Black studies. We were learning about our own histories and cultures. Street Academy students participated in demonstrations like the United Farm Workers grape boycott of the mid-1970s. We learned that we could make a difference with our voices. It was a great self-esteem builder.

In many ways, Street Academy saved my life because I was going nowhere.
The minute I set foot into that school I knew it was something special. It took me four years to graduate because I was so far behind in my schooling, and I was dyslexic.

When I left Street Academy, I was reading college material and attended San Francisco State University. I was the first in my family to graduate high school and the first to go to college. As a 15-year-old with CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), I accomplished what I thought would never happen to me.

I am grateful to the school’s staff and what Street Academy stands for. Schools and teachers should treat students like human beings, care about them, spend a little extra time, believe in them, and they will believe in themselves because you never know what students are going through and what they have experienced in their past that affects their learning.

There are no stupid kids, bad kids, or lazy kids, only kids who need to be understood and loved. Street Academy gave all of that to me.

During the 1970s, Ze Segundo attended the Oakland Street Academy, an Oakland Unified School District school now known as Emiliano Zapata Street Academy located at 417 29^th St. in Oakland.

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

1 month ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to