American Ballet Theatre's Misty Copeland Returns To Cuba As Cultural Ambassador

“It’s a great honor to be here,” Misty Copeland, the first Afro-American ballerina of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), said in the venue of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC). Copeland joined a group of U.S. personalities of culture, sports and the performing arts for a mid-November 2016 arrival in Cuba, after the renewal of diplomatic relations between both nations.

Misty Copeland is not the first figure of the ABT to come to the island, where cultural exchanges have been permitted for years. She was preceded by Cynthia Gregory, Ted Kivitt, Eleonor D’Antuono, Cynthia Harvey and other dancers. On Cuba reports on the decades long collaboration between American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Cuba.

Misty Copeland Covers Self December 2017

Misty Copeland Is 'Misty On Pointe' As Self Magazine Prepares To Close Its Print Publication AOC Body

Misty Copeland Is 'Misty On Pointe' in Self Magazine's December issue. Self's February 2017 issue represents the last print issue of the women's health, wellness and fitness publication. With the exception of special issues devoted to core topics important to readers, Self will move to a strictly digital platform, facing the reality that its print advertising pages were down 32% through October.

Related: Misty Copeland Is Promoted to Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre in AOC Women In-Depth -- includes 60 Minutes Interview and multiple Copeland articles.

Read Misty Copeland's interview with Self.

AOC in Cuba

Yanis: Hypnotized Dancers Lose Control

via NOWNESS

“The thing that’s interesting with hypnosis is that people can’t really lie,” says Paris-based electro-pop artist Yanis of the uninhibited state he and fellow participants underwent for the video to “Hypnotized,” his debut single. “You don’t really have complete control, and I was searching for an experience that would bring that.”

The undulating track was inspired by watching David Lynch’s filmography, and subsequently feeling “hypnotized, as though I’m travelling into his movies,” says the singer, who worked with the suitably named Julian Hypnotiseur and director Ludovic Zuili to gather a troupe of “receptive” participants – including Charlotte Le Bon, who starred in 2014‘s Yves Saint Laurent biopic – before embarking on a mission to break down barriers of inhibition. 

“It’s half dream, half reality,” Yanis says of the oft-misunderstood practice. “I’ve learned that it’s not magic or mystic, it’s just about a connection with someone and I was really interested in that connection.