Penned by contributions to your pbs station. From viewers like you. Thank you. Misty copeland defied the ballet pundits who insisted she did not look like a classical ballerina, which was frankly a veiled way of saying africanamericans and classical ballet dont mix. Shes proved all those naysayers wrong, acclaimed soloist with the american ballet theater. In australia she performed odele and odet in swan lake. I asked misty why ballet is considered an elite art form. Just because i think it takes money, you know, to get the right training and so, therefore, it has been considered an elite art form. Yeah. But how did it happen for you then . If it takes a bunch of money, unless youre going to tell me youre independently wealthy and didnt know that. I didnt come about that in your research. I see your mom to the side saying were not independently wealthy. Its an expensive venture. How did it happen to you . Ballet found me i guess you could say. I was discovered by a teacher in middle school. I always danced my whole life. I never had any training. Never was exposed to seeing dance. But id always had something inside me, i loved to kor you grafr a choreograph. I had a teacher when i was trying out for cheerleading, drill team and noticed my talent and suggested i take ballet lessons. I was 13. Is 13 a little it sounds funny to say. Is 13 a little old to be starring ballet . 13 is a late age especially for women. Its more common with men because you have to get the body before it changes. So that you can mold it. So, yes, i started at a late age, and i decided within a couple of months that i was going to do this professionally because i didnt have much time to get the right training, so i ds decided i was going to devote everything, so for the next four years i trained and then joined american ballet theater. How do you, in a space of time where youre already starting late, make up that ground and become good at it . Finding great training, i think, is number one. Did a lot of research and found really great teachers. And just takes i took a year off from school and did independent studies. So that i could devote all of my time to it. But i think that training is the key. Definitely. And its not a sport. And so, were not supposed to make it look like its work. Or like its hard. But it is. Its extremely, extremely difficult. On a regular basis, what kind of how do you for those of us who go to a gym regularly, on any given day youre going to feel pain given when the work wroworkout was. On a regular day, how do you feel . Are your toes hurting . How do you feel typically . There are things your body gets used to. When i was younger, my feet would hurt a lot. You build up callouses and strength. Its a give and take. The older you get, you may feel pain in wyour back or hips. Once you make to a level with a company as prestigious as the american ballet theater, you have to be built for it i think which makes it easier on the body. To your point of being in the american ballet theater, i always feel a little, a certain way about africanamericans who are accomplishing firsts. And i especially feel that way, you know, these days, here we are in 2011. And theres still so many things that africanamericans have yet had a chance to do. So that on the one hand you celebrate misty, you celebrate barack obama, any number of africanamericans doing things for the first time. On the other hand, i wonder whether we make too big a deal out of that and if it puts out of that and if it p}tk are n a certain way. Thats a mouthful. Respond in the way up to respond. I think it depends on the person. Ive never felt pressure. I think that ive stepped into, i guess, this role with pride, and i think its amazing to be able to be, i guess, successful, and get it out there to other black dancers that they can do it. And that im here. And, i mean, ive got nothing but warmth from the black community and positive feedback. So do you see others, other young women, other young men, of color, pursuing this kind of career path or is there still a complete dearth of africanamerican ballet dancers . Ive seen more. But theyre out there. Theyre not being given the opportunities to be exposed. To audition or get into a company of this caliber. But theyre there. There are so many talented black ballet dancers out there. They just have to be given the opportunity. Yeah. So what happens then when your talent, your gift, hooks up with a guy like prince . I mean, Everybody Knows i love him. Thats my guy. But when he gives you a chance to be exposed, puts you in a video, puts you on stage with him, sold out shows at Madison Square garden, et cetera, eart cetera, what does that do for your exposure, your exposure on a personal level. Whats that do for you . Number one. Number who, what do you think it does for the art form in terms of exposing it, courtesy of prince, to other africanamericans . I think that its incredible what hes doing. He has so much respect for every art form, and i think its great that everyone at madison got to see, whod probably never seen classical bail lllet in their l. Hes doing a great thing exposing people. Hopefully theyll come to the Metropolitan Opera House and not feel like its too out of their league or something. Are there purists in your world who would look at something even though its with this iconic artist, prince, who look at you on stage at Madison Square garden and think, okay, shes bastardizing the art form, shes hanging out with prince. Thats not what ballet is about. Are there purists who get attitude about stuff like that . I dont think so. I havent experienced it. I think its great for the culture. For it to be, you know, exposed. But also at the same time, i feel like im respectful to what i do in my company and its great that im being given these opportunities with prince, but im a classical ballet dancer, at the end of the day, i want to be with american ballet theater performing classical ballets. Prince isnt a bad dancer himself. No. The best part of the story for me, and i had no idea until we started doing the research, i knew we had the opportunity to talk to you, you grew up, like, down the road from here. Like, who knew that you grew up i mean, youre making this hi history. Youre on the world stage. Literally at the american ballet theater. Prince. You grew up in san pedro . I did. San pedro, california. How is that possible . Yeah, its a small town. Its really amazing that i was discovered. And that ive been giving these great opportunities to travel the world and work with amazing artists. And im very blessed. Yeah. So are we because of your gift. The moral of tonights conversation is, the next time you get asked, can anything good come out of san pedro . The answer is yes. Misty copeland has made history as the first africanamerican female soloist with the american ballet theater. Wonderful company, of course. If you are fortunate enough and if their schedules continue to mesh and you can catch her on the road anywhere with our friend prince, it is a show, and a performance you will absolutely enjoy. Misty, congratulations. Food to have you on the program. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Charles riley known professionally as lil buck can attest to the power of youtube. A dance performance he did of the swan with yoyo ma playing the cello amassed 2 million views. His style of dancing is known as jookin and won him a devoted following as well as stints with madonna, circumstance tque du s. Lets check out Charles Riley with yoyo ma at the center for performing arts. Its hard to watch you and not look at your feet. I find myself just staring at your feet. I look down and saw the shoes you had on today. Those are nice kicks you have on, man. Thank you. These are some air force ones. They were actually made by the designer named ricardo. Uhhuh. And hes a really upscale designer. He just collaborated with this really kind of a street sneaker wear. They were a gift from madonna. A gift from who . Madonna. She sent them for my birthday. Oh, how nice. Yeah, thanks. Really nice. Hey, madonna, i wear size 12. If you want to hook a negro up. Size 12. I can take of those, too. That was nice of madonna. Let me go from ma ddonnamadonna. Lets start with my friend, yoyo ma, who i adore. How did you and yoyo hook up . Its funny, me and yoyo hooked up through a guy named damian woetzel, former principal dancer for the new York City Ballet, and very good. He still has it, by the way. But, yeah, he actually found a video of me dancing to the swan, i believe i was 18, 19 years old. I was still a Company Member at this ballet studio which i was a part of called new ballet on ensemble and school in memphis, tennessee. And i did performance with the company. And it was for kids in arkansas. We went to arkansas. We drove down there and did a performance. It was to the swan. I knew nothing about yoyo at the time. It was a beautiful outcome. The kids loved it. They were in awe of it. Their faces were glowing. You could hear it all on the camera. They saw the video, actually his wife, she saw the video on youtube and thought it was amazing and she showed damian and they both thought it was incredible and they were already working with yoyo ma at the time. They have things called the art strike. They go out and get the arts into schools and different schools, arts and education, and really push that out into the world. With the president s committee on the arts and humanities. So damian and yoyo ma already have an established relationship and thought it would be crazy to just have this collaboration with this, like, street dancer. Damian reached out to me on facebook, actually. Through facebook. Yeah. And told me he loved my style and that he wanted to get me and yoyo together. I looked up yoyo. I was like, whos the yoyo guy . Ive never heard of a guy named where, yoyo. Hadnt heard of yoyo in middle school bathrooms. I found out the Amazing Things hes a part of and awards hes won and how he was a prodigy at a very young age playing for all our president s. I thought it was amazing. Wow, this was an incredible opportunity. And, i was living in l. A. At the time by the time that they reached out to me. Right. So this is when i was like 19 or 20 years old when they reached out to me. And we just met up. They knew i was in l. A. Yoyo happened to have a concert at the walt disney concert hall. I met up with yoyo there. The first thing he said to me is, are you lil buck when he saw me. I said, yes. He gave me this big hug. The only thing he said after that was, i want to try something. He opened up his case, brought out the cello and just started playing. Right there in the moment. And i just started dancing immediately. I reacted and you had to be there to see the magic happen for the first time. And after that, we gave each other a hug again and just knew we had that chemistry together and the next day actually is when we did the performance that spike jones caught on camera. The very next day. The very next day. Actually here in l. A. Hold on. Hold on. So you and yoyo meet one day. Yes. On spot. He bulls out his cello. Yep. Says i want to try something. Yep. You just do your thing. And you all recorded it the very next day . The very next day they had this meeting for the president s committee on the arts and humanity. It was at brown lords place out here. Yoyo was just hold on, hold on. Im just laughing that buck thought brian lord is the biggest uberagent. You hung out at his house . Yeah. Thats where the video took place. At his house . Yes. Okay. Go ahead. So we were there and i think it was just supposed to be yoyo by himself, just, you know, for an intermission, a quick nice little intermission. They thought it would be fun to actually throw me in there with him and see what happens with that. The reaction was phenomenal as you saw on camera. You can hear the reaction from the people. How do you take me back to memphis where it all began and tell me how dance became your muse. How did you and dance develop this love affair . Well, ive always i can tell you right now ive always been dancing. Just whether i mean, not professional, just moving around, listening to music as a little kid. I always had hyper energy. I was always hyper. I really got into dance when i was 12 years old. I came home from school i came home from school and in the living room my sister was dancing doing this crazy thing with her knees and it looked cool. It looked pretty cool. You know, she was bouncing her shoulders and it was and id never seen her do this before. I asked, what is this youre doing right now . It kind of looks cool. She said, im jookin, my friend from school showed me how to it. Me and her made up my first routine in the living room, doing a couple eight counts together and made up our first ever whatever jookin routine. This is when i was having fun with it but i really took jookin seriously the next year when i turned 13. I should spell this. This is pbs. I should spell it. Jookin. Yes, absolutely. Just like bookin. Bookin or cookin. Were talking jookin with a j. Wanted to make sure everybody is on the same page. You and your sister were hanging out. Go ahead. Thats what happened. I saw her. I got inspired her by doing that in the living room. Thats when i jumped into it for fun and got really serious with it when i was 13 because that age, the next year i really started seeing it more. In my schools. I started seeing it when i would go out with my friends to different skating rinks, which is skating rinks are like places back where you would see a lot of this being done. You see a lot of jookin being done in empty parking lots, skating rinks. Really not in classrooms at all. Its a dance style that came from the underground streets, underground rap. How does the choreography of it all work . You well, see, the magic of it because its a freestylebased dance style. Its all its, like, 40 or 20 originality, maybe 40 originality because we have original steps that make it what it is, where you can separate it from other dance styles, of course. Because jookin started out as gangster walk, like the gangster walk and it was kind of a line dance bouncy feel and it evolved. To what you see right now, how complex it is. I sort of created my own style within it. Your ankles are like, theyre like rubber. Yeah, they kind of are. Theyre super flexible. I found out they were really flexible when i was in middle school, actually. I was doing things like this. A lot with my ankles. Hold on. Do that again. Jonathan, did you get this . Do that again. Really double jointed in their arms, i can always do this with my ankles. I used to scare my mom a lot with that. But god, you scared me with that. When i started dancing, you know, i actually i wanted to, you know, see i told you its a freestylebased dance style, so its like 40 originality and, like, the rest is all your creativity. Whatever happens in your mind. I love how youre describing this. Before we go farther in the conversation, i was online the other day and saw a piece that, for vogue yeah, i did, yeah vogue did a feature on me because i was a part of the new York City Ballet, this huge performance of new York City Ballet called the 21st century choreographers, the choreographers of the 21st century. They wanted to do a feature on me because i was one of the main dancers in the big show with j. R. He was choreographing, who is a world renowned visual artist. And they did a feature on me in the magazine as well as a video. Okay. Let me jonathan, i want to play this video. So much easier for people to see how brilliant his artistic genius is. Its hard to describe it. Heres this vogue piece i want you to see, then well talk about it. Zd i want to get you in my skin shining like the ocean only then can i awake and feel myself begin i want to fight for my own strength cracking through the pavement i know what i see when i see this. I was so full, when i just saw your gift on display in that way. When you see that, what do you see . You know what, most people bring up my work, and my videos and everything, they always mention, like, just like what you said and they mention just my expression, how happy i am when i dance. I see happiness when i look at that video. I see a lot of work. A lot of hard work. To get to that point, man. Because ive been dancing every day. Every single day. Really never missed a day since i was 13. Yeah. Ive been doing jookin every day. So its been, like, 14 year now nonstop. Give me your sense of how you think the exposure toward this art form will lead to greater acceptance of it. I mean, when youre hanging out with yowhere,yo ma. Now here you are on pbs. Now, whats your hope and your dream for the exposure of this art form . Which i hope will lead to greater acceptance of it . Exactly. My hope and dream, my overall goal for just me, what im doing right now, what im trying to do, getting this dance out to, you know, bringing it out to the world. My number one goal is, like, for it to be on the i want it to be respected and just i believe it has the power to be in the same category as, like, you know, modern, jazz, ballet. You know, hip hop, jookin. Its own thing. You know . I really strongly believe its such a beautiful dance, and its such a and its so different because you have the majority control in it. Youre not really learning it from anybody else. Right. You learn the basics and from there you tap into your own creativity and get to learn more about yourself. There are teams of jookin. They have a jookin team in europe, man. Its crazy how much notoriety its getting. See what theyve done in memphis . The whole world. Memphis has done that on a whole bunch of different fronts. First blues, now jookin. Say nothing of the barbecue, we owe memphis a great deal. So, im going to let you get out of here so you can get back to what youre working on next. Im honored to have you on the program. Its an honor to be here. I enjoy it. Just to see the way you work those ankles in person is amazing to me. Yeah, you know, i try. I do my thing. All right. You can call him charles, buck, call him lil buck. Any way, hes a bad man. And i have so enjoyed this. Im sure everybody right now is going to youtube quickly. Please. To watch these videos. Thats our show for tonight. Thanks for watching. As always, keep faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavissmiley pbs. Org. Hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning author nicholas kristof. Thats next time. Well see you then. Penned by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. . xg this program was made possible in part by. And im excited about the program today. We have a hotbutton topic. Everyone is talking about whats going on in arizona. An invasion. Theyre flooding over the borders, and someone has got to do something. One of the most difficult and troubling aspects of the illegal immigration battle is what to do about millions of children. [ ] come on, dad. Ahhh uchhh ive got all kinds of rocks in my shoes. My name is kimberly torrez, and im 11 years old and i live on