Does one black ballet superstar mean real change?

Misty Copeland was showered with love and attention when she became the first African American principal ballerina at American Ballet Theatre last month. She received thousands of congratulatory tweets. Her promotion was big news in media nationwise. Ballet fans rejoiced, and so did many who had never heard of her.

Would this mean a new era of opportunity for ballerinas of color in a world of white swans, snowflakes, and sylphs?

The outlook depends on whom you ask.

Joan Myers Brown, founding artistic director of Philadanco, created her troupe 45 years ago "because there were no opportunities for black dancers, not because I wanted to have a black company."

It's her feeling that Copeland, 32, won the new post not only because she's a fine ballerina but because she's so marketable. She's light-skinned (her father is biracial) and has a killer body. She was on the cover of Time, did an ad for Under Armour that's been viewed nearly nine million times on YouTube, and was a presenter last month at the Tony Awards. Her memoir, Life in Motion, was a bestseller, and she's going to star in Broadway's On the Town for two weeks next month.

"If she hadn't been appointed a principal," said Brown, "there would've been a whole lot of confusion."

On the other hand, Copeland was turning heads with her technique long before she was a star, said Gabriella Yudenich, a former soloist with Pennsylvania Ballet. The two trained together in 2000 as 16-year-olds at a summer program at ABT.

"She was the 'it' girl in our level that summer," Yudenich said. "We were in awe of her talent!"

Michaela DePrince, 20, also trained at ABT. Born in Sierra Leone and raised in Cherry Hill, she has performed in benefits around the world and was featured in the ballet documentary First Position. The film rights for her memoir, Taking Flight, have been sold, and she has a strong following on social media.

But, says Brown, "the darker women have a harder time," and after a season at Dance Theatre of Harlem, DePrince found success across the Atlantic at the Dutch National Ballet, one of the world's premier troupes.

"They just seemed to not focus on my skin color like some American companies," she said. "So I suppose you could say it was easier [to get hired overseas] in that respect."

DePrince has been promoted for next season to coryphee, or demi-soloist, bypassing the corps de ballet. On July 1, while still an apprentice, she danced a pas de deux from Swan Lake on Dutch TV, and "no one really said anything about me being a black white swan."

This difference in attitudes does not surprise Bojan Spassoff, who with his wife, Stephanie Wolf Spassoff, directs Philadelphia's Rock School for Dance Education, where DePrince studied for many years.

The Rock has students from many cultures. It offers outreach programs in 30 city schools and scholarships to promising students it finds there. But where would the Spassoffs direct a talented black dancer starting a career?

"Right now, unfortunately, I would probably point to Europe," Bojan Spassoff said. "In Europe, they're actually looking for diversity. There is a lot of opportunity. For the most part, it boils down to talent."

Pennsylvania Ballet, too, is interested in dancers with varied looks, said Angel Corella, its artistic director and a former ABT principal whose career overlapped Copeland's.

"Misty is a beautiful dancer," he said. "The first thing I did when she joined [ABT], I . . . asked if I could dance with her."

(He noted that there is diversity in his own family. Along with his dancer sister, Carmen, he grew up with Emi, who was born in Guinea and adopted at 2.)

Corella is not looking for the traditional corps de ballet that's been standard for hundreds of years, in which everyone looks identical, "like robots." A corps can create cohesion other ways, he said. "I tell them they have to create an atmosphere. Almost all breathing together. At the end of the day, you want a company where everyone has a kind of energy."

Yes, he said, "there are certain canons you have to follow in the ballet world. The dancer has to have a good line, proper turnout, flexibility, good turn, good jump." But "you can be of any color."

Barbara Sandonato, 72, agreed. She is a popular Philadelphia ballet teacher and the first dancer hired when Barbara Weisberger formed Pennsylvania Ballet back in 1963; she's also Gabriela Yudenich's mother.

"Like with all dancers, black, white, Italian, Asian, the aesthetics play a big part," she said. "Misty was born with those [beautiful] legs and feet. For me, it's not about your color, it's about your artistry and how hard you worked to get it."

Janine Beckles, 30, a dancer with Philadanco, is skeptical, noting, "I'm a 5-foot-9, slender, muscular, dark-skinned black woman." Ballet company directors, she said, will say, "Aesthetically, she doesn't have the lines, the feet" when they mean "they don't want someone standing out."

She and her twin, Erika, won ballet scholarships but then were pushed toward modern dance, which is far more diverse.

"I knew I would never be able to be in a ballet company. I'm very happy for Misty, but I'm not happy about the situation. She blends in, she's a light-skinned black woman."

Beckles said that even the most basic ballet gear, pink tights, are supposed to look like pale legs.

"It doesn't look like flesh tone on darker skin. If the [black] ballerina is in flesh tone, she's definitely going to stand out. And I'm seeing certain dancers who don't even wear tights because they can't find tights in their shade."

Philadelphia has produced more dancers of color than many cities. Sandonato taught Andrea Long, who was a snowflake in New York City Ballet's popular 1993 filmed Nutcracker, with Macauley Culkin. Debra Austin danced with City Ballet before joining Pennsylvania Ballet as a principal.

Stephanie Wolf Spassoff noted recent Rock School successes: Taylor Stanley, a soloist with City Ballet; Lawrence Rines, at Boston Ballet; Zachary Downer, who made it to Las Vegas on So You Think You Can Dance; and the Rock's choreographer, Justin Allen.

And everyone - Corella, Sandonato, and the Spassoffs, points to Jermel Johnson, Pennsylvania Ballet's only black dancer, who has amazing flexibility, rippling muscles, and a sky-high jump.

BalletX, a Philadelphia-based contemporary ballet company, also has one African American dancer, Gary W. Jeter II.

But, said Beckles, it's different for men, who don't do much corps work and often are standing behind a light-skinned ballerina, presenting her.

She doesn't see the plight of the black ballerina improving.

"I don't think that will ever change, to be honest, because aesthetically [company directors] don't think it looks as good."

With that in mind, Joan Myers Brown said she will hold an audition in January solely for black ballerinas. She plans to invite all directors from the classical ballet companies who say they can't find any black dancers. (Corella says he'll be there.)

"I don't think the face of ballet is changing," Brown said. "It needs to change. It needs to look like America."

@edunkel

Correction: Misty Copeland’s father was originally described as white. He is biracial.