It's not easy watching your body change over the years, but professional ballerina Misty Copeland says: "I love a challenge."

Copeland took her final bow with American Ballet Theatre in October, after spending years away from performance.

"It's a beautiful thing, to be able to see your body change, to acknowledge that it's changed and that it is different, and that you value movement in a different way," Copeland explains. Practicing classical ballet technique after having her son in 2022, she says: "It's as if I've been reborn and I have a new body to try .

In 2015, Copeland made history as the first Black woman to become a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. It was the culmination of a journey that began, not in a traditional ballet academy, but in a Boys & Girls Club gym in Los Angeles, where a shy teenager first discovered what her body could say through movement.

On collaborating with Prince

He was my biggest supporter. He showed me what it was to be one of a kind, to be unique, to be proud to stand in his uniqueness, and to use that as a power. Whereas before I felt isolated and alone ... he really saw it as the opposite. He's like, "You have such an advantage." He's like, "You're the only brown girl out there. Everyone's gonna look at you. Now what are you gonna do?" And then just exploring my artistry by working with him, I think made me grow in leaps and bounds as a dancer.