Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina

Misty Copeland is a very elegant, graceful and inspiring young lady. I knew nothing of her until late last year when i saw her "i will what i want" AD on Youtube. From that very moment i was mystified! I had never in my life seen a brown ballerina and Misty Copeland is a beautiful one at that. l added this book to my "Amazon Wishlist" but didn't end up buying and reading it until 1 year later. Silly me! But, to be honest i have read it at the most perfect time in my life. In the age we live in, with "celebrities" bed hopping, drug taking and sex tape making, a woman like Misty who has a genuine and brilliant talent is a dying breed. Her demeanour should be celebrated. This is the type of female our young girls should aspire to, she is respectable, sophisticated and exudes class. Her book tells all about her childhood, the poverty she lived through and her neglectful mother who had 6 children with many toxic men and how Misty and her siblings fled with her mother from these men, in midnight flits, from man to man, house to motel, because she had failed at another attempt of a "relationship". The serendipitous tale of how she discovered ballet and the lady who encouraged her talent is endearing, and the stuff of Hollywood movies, she was born to shine and be discovered! There's lots of adversity in this book, which is to be expected, but, Misty has triumphed over all of them. She has become the first black woman to be promoted to principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre's 75 year history. What an accomplishment! Reading this book has left me motivated in all many aspects of my life, i went to the gym for the first time today in 7 months because of Misty and i hope to get my health and fitness back on track after a back injury. Thank you Misty for writing such a wonderful and inspiring book. You have a new fan please don't ever change. I will be watching out for you and i hope some day i will get to watch you dance. I also can't wait to watch your documentary this year, if i knew you were crowdfunding for it i would have donated just so i could see my name on the credits and be a part of your memorable story. Unfortunately i missed my chance. Good luck Misty xxx

My ten year old was going through a bit of a dry spell after finishing the Harry Potter series. No book kept her interest. Until this one. She found the story engaging and inspiring, says she learnt new words and sentence constructions. She's been motivated to practice ballet even more than usual. An all round success really. Only trouble is that she couldn't put it down and finished it in a few days.

Interesting and inspiring read, but I feel it was written too soon as my edition finishes before she was made a principal of ABT. The photo selection needed to include more pictures of Misty in her ballet roles.

My daughter loves Misty Copeland and has found in her a wonderful role model. A great and easy read which has given my daughter food for thought and inspiration :)

Great book