Misty Copeland

You know, I love being in the studio.

I love being on the stage, but bows have never been my favorite thing to do.

And yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's hard for me to like accept, I guess.

Yeah.

It sounds so counter to what I do, but I've just never been someone that really enjoys being in the spotlight.

Again, I enjoy the work and I love being on stage.

I've always felt very protected when I was on stage.

This is something as a child and from my upbringing that

Being in a studio and being on stage was the first time that I felt safe in my young life.

And I still feel a sense of that when I'm on stage.

So for me, it's never been about kind of this outward thing.

You know, the reason I agreed to having the farewell performance was because I wanted to say thank you.

I wanted to say thank you for everything.

The dance community, the black community, all the people that have spent their hard-earned money and flown from their hometowns and come to support me.

And I understand, like, what I represent.

I understand all of that.