DIRECTOR: Nelson George
PRODUCER: Leslie Norville
EDITOR: Malika Weeden
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Cliff Charles, Oskar Landi, Nelson George, Malika Weeden, Nicolas Waterman, Jon Dunham

Few dancers make it to the highest levels of classical ballet. Of that small number, only a fraction of them are black women. Misty Copeland succeeded in pulling herself up from the studio company at American Ballet Theater to the corps de ballet and then to soloist. In 2013 she was offered the lead role in Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird to be performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, a major coup for a soloist. While she danced beautifully that night, she performed in great pain. Afterwards she was found to have six fractures in her left shin that required corrective surgery. This film follows the ballerina’s painful road back to dancing.

Nelson George is an author, filmmaker, television producer and critic with a long career in analyzing and presenting the diverse elements of African-American culture. Nelson has been on a roll since 2013 with the following completed documentary projects: VH1 Rock Docs’ Finding the Funk; Showtime’s Brooklyn Boheme; ESPN’s The Announcement; and the short All Hail the Beat, for the Focus Forward campaign.