Ballerina finally gets pointe shoes in her skin tone

Brut America

"Other little brown girls can look at me and know that they can do ballet too." For this ballerina, receiving pointe shoes matching her skin tone was more than a leap in the right direction...

Transcript

00:00Guys, guess what, guess what?

00:03I finally got brown pointe shoes.

00:06I can't tell you how excited I am.

00:09They look stunning.

00:12I mean, look at this, look at this.

00:14It's like my skin tone.

00:15It's brown.

00:16It's like my skin tone.

00:17It's brown.

00:18It's like my skin tone.

00:18It's brown.

00:19It's brown.

00:26I think the shoes really meant a lot to me

00:28because originally I had to pancake my shoes,

00:32meaning use like foundation and sponge

00:35to just make it my skin tone.

00:36And that took a lot of time and effort and like money as well.

00:40So I think it's just,

00:42it was insane how much I needed that.

00:46And I didn't realize that until like,

00:48I got brown pointe shoes that were my skin tone.

00:58It seems like it'd be a small thing,

01:10but it really means a lot because the ballet world

01:13in general is very slow and like accepting of POC

01:17and like brown skin dancers.

01:19And so that's why I think representation

01:20is super duper important.

01:22Because when I was growing up,

01:23I didn't have a lot of people to look up to

01:25that were like my skin tone.

01:27So I hope to be that for other people

01:29and like other little brown girls

01:30that they can look up to me and like,

01:32you know, they can know that they can do ballet too.

01:47The ballet world is like slowly,

01:48but surely like becoming more accepting

01:50of like more diverse skin tones and people.

01:54And I think that's super duper important.

01:56And I definitely think the Black Lives Matter movement

01:58played a huge factor in that

02:00because people started to realize like,

02:01you know, we need more representation in our media.

02:04And I think for example, with Suffolk,

02:08they heard our plea for more diversity in their products

02:13and they started making brown pointe shoes

02:16and like, that's how it happened.

02:18I think it's super great.

02:27I really struggled with, you know,

02:29accepting that I am brown and I'm different

02:33and I don't look like your typical ballerina.

02:36So I think just own all of your differences

02:39because they make you unique

02:40and you can use that for your benefit.

02:42And yeah, just like own what you have.

02:45I feel like I can escape like all the hardships

02:48and like sometimes the harsh reality

02:50that comes with just life in general.

02:52And I think it's just like, it's an incredible feeling

02:56and I live for that moment every single time I dance.

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