(347) Misty Copeland and Leyla Fayyaz on their film, 'Flower'
Today on Conversations On Dance, we are joined by acclaimed ballerina, Misty Copeland, and Emmy Award winning TV producer and writer, Leyla Fayyaz. We talk to Misty and Leyla about how they first met as young ballerinas at American Ballet Theatre, reconnecting to create Life In Motion Productions, the stories they want to tell in their new work and their first short film 'Flower', which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. For my information on 'Flower' and Life In Motion Productions, follow @oaklandflowerfilm on Instagram.
If you’d like to host a free screening of Life in Motion's new film Flower starring Misty Copeland please email flower@picturemotion.com.
VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
Conversations on Dance events: https://vaildance.org/conversations-on-dance/
Performance tickets: https://vaildance.org/
LINKS:
Website: conversationsondancepod.com
Instagram: @conversationsondance
Merch: https://bit.ly/cod-merch
YouTube: https://bit.ly/youtube-COD
Join our email list: https://bit.ly/mail-COD
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was generated automatically. It’s accuracy may vary.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:00:54]:
I'm Rebecca King Ferraro.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:00:56]:
And I'm Michael Sean Breeden, and you're listening to Conversations on Dance. Today on Conversations on Dance we are joined by acclaimed ballerina Misty Copeland and Emmy award winning TV producer and writer Leila Fayyaz. We talk to Misty and Leila about how they first met as young ballerinas at American Ballet Theater reconnecting to create Life in Motion productions, the stories they want to tell in their new work, and their first short film, Flower, which recently premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. For more information on Flower and Life in Motion productions, follow at oakland flower Film on instagram. Leyla and Misty, thank you both for joining us. We're so excited to talk to you about your collaboration on the film Flower. But before we got into that, Leyla, we haven't had you on the podcast yet, so we've got to get a little bit of background with you. But Misty, we haven't had you on in, I think, six years. So a few things have happened with you, but one that we always like to talk about just because it's such a joyful thing, is you're a new mother and Rebecca is also a new mother, so it's just something we always love to bring up on the pod. How's that experience been for you?
Misty Copeland [00:02:12]:
I'm like, sorry, I'm looking down right now because I'm actually texting my husband to tell him to keep Jackson away while we film. It's been everything and more than I imagine. Like, I come from a big family, I'm one of six kids, and I always knew that I wanted a family. But as a woman, as an artist, as an athlete, it's so hard to find that balance and to make the time and still be able to continue on in your career. It's so complicated and I feel fortunate to have found the time. And COVID was really a blessing in disguise for me for so many reasons. Having my son, Jackson, I wrote two books, Leyla. I really got Life in Motion off the ground because we had the time to really focus on it. I started my foundation, so it's been a very productive time. And Flower was birthed during that time, which was also another blessing in disguise with all of the challenges we had because of the pandemic, there's so much to talk about.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:03:30]:
Oh, my gosh. I just think you've been everywhere with all these sorts of things, but I do wonder, what has it been like? I'm retired, so in my body, I can't even imagine. I tried to do fifth position the other day, and I was like, wow, what is this? This is very foreign. And I feel like we maybe had our I had my son August 1. Last year was around the same time.
Misty Copeland [00:03:49]:
April.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:03:50]:
April.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:03:51]:
So how is that body feeling getting back into ballet for you?
Misty Copeland [00:03:55]:
I'm really taking my time. It's been a journey for me. I had my insane injury about ten years ago, and the injury was really to prevent anything from happening further. I had six stress fractures in my tibia, and so it didn't relieve the pain. So I'd been dancing before the pandemic the last ten years with severe pain. So I'm really kind of taking a step back and king my time in terms of what that looks like for physicality and for my body having the opportunity to do all of these other things that are really working towards the same goal as my whole career has been when I'm on stage. And so all of that to say, I'm not doing fifth position right now.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:04:52]:
Oh, good, that makes me feel better. No, I'm just kidding.
Misty Copeland [00:04:58]:
Taking my time and finding a new fitness journey, and we'll see when I get back.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:05:06]:
Leyla, we want to hear a little bit about your journey with fifth position. I'd love to just hear, since it's your first time on the pod, what's your initial background in dance? Tell us a little bit about that.
Leyla Fayyaz [00:05:17]:
I started dancing when I was ten or eleven years old, had taken gymnastics before that. I was always a little too tall for gymnastics either way, but I loved it. And then my mom was like, oh, you can't do this anymore. Some of your friends are getting injured. I'm nervous. And now I understand as a mom, because I have a daughter in gymnastics. I can't even watch her do gymnastics. I get nervous. So she made me stop and then was like, well, there's dance classes instead. I'll put you in ballet. And as soon as I started, I just loved it. I mean, I was like a ten year old with, like, six year olds because I didn't have any training, so I was much bigger, and it was awkward, but I didn't care. I was in the zone immediately, and I found a way to express myself, a way to get out of the house and kind of have my own world that was just mine. And I loved it. And so I did that. And I progressed really quickly because I did have natural ability, good feet, as they say, and little hyperextension in the legs, like all those things they used to say were great for dance. And so I ended up getting a scholarship to go to the Herod Conservatory. So I trained at the Herod Conservatory for two years and then I won the very first ever Youth America Grand Prix competition. It was the first year they ever did it. Larissa Sevillion was like larissa was going around to the different schools looking for people and telling them to enter this competition. I did it. I won regionals and then nationals and I got the Grand Prix. And that came with a studio company contract. And I actually turned the studio company contract down because that summer beforehand I had gone to the Vale Valley what is it, the summer program there. And I had an offer from the Stupgart Ballet to train at their John Cranko school. They were going to take me to the Prieta Lazan. Yeah. And so I had already confirmed with them, this is what I was king. So I turned down studio company and I went to Germany for two months. And it was really difficult, I have to say, because there was culture shock. I was like 16 years old, on my own, didn't really know what was going on and didn't assimilate very easily into the school because they had all been there the entire year. And I just stepped in in the summer. And then there were other things. It was hard emotionally, I think, for me. And then I came back just for a two week break to the States and I went to a program at Cotspond that Martinez Van Hamill and Kevin Mackenzie had just started this dance program there. And I Sean now, it's a much bigger thing, but again, one of the first years they were doing it, so I went. And when I was there every day, like either Kevin Mackenzie or John Meehan, who at the time was the artistic director of the studio company, would come to me at lunch, take me aside and tell me why I needed to join the studio company. I needed to change my mind. And I'm like, well, I have all my stuff in Germany, and I'm only 16. I don't know what's going on to make these big life decisions. But one of the things that they told me, that one of the things they were using to try to lure me was, we want to take you and one other dancer to China with the main company, just you two. We're going to choose you guys out of the studio company to go. And her name is Misty Copeland. So it's just funny because full circle now, even then I was like, oh, that sounds interesting. So they changed my mind and I ended up going to New York, joining the studio company, and I was sleeping on another dancer from the company's couch, adrian Schulte. And I met Misty. And I met Misty the first week I was there. And we just immediately hit it off and we went to China. Like, what a week later, misty and we had all these adventures and we became best friends immediately. And we wrote this little book on our first tour with the company to China, and it's somewhere we still don't know where it is. We think it's maybe with Misty’s mother in law in storage or something. A diary, kind of. Yeah, it was like about our adventures as these two youngest people in Abt at the time and how we were trying to fit in and trying to get noticed and trying to do our best. And obviously it was just really intimidating and difficult. We were playing Mariah Carey in the hotel room at night and eating pringles because there was no food that we could eat because we were afraid we were going to get life poisoned or something.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:10:11]:
I'm a huge lamb, so I know very much about Mariah shepherding you through the artistic experiences.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:10:20]:
I feel like publishing houses are listening, saying, life, how do we find this.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:10:30]:
Also, it just makes me think of like ballet is so unique in that way. I think it's so special that most of our friends, many of our friends are people we've known for literal decades at this point. And you just have that implicit trust when you are in this point in your life right now where you're working together, it's like you've built years of trust and dependency on one another. So it's so cool that you guys are able to collaborate in this way. But let's circle back to that. There's so much to talk about. We want to hear just quickly, Misty, about your book writing. I mean, this book that you wrote about your mentor, Raven Wilkinson. What made you feel life? That was an important story for you to get out there.
Misty Copeland [00:11:20]:
Yeah, Raven and I had had such an incredible relationship, learning about her story at a late stage in my career. I was a soloist. I had been a soloist for maybe four or five years already at that point at at Abt and and learning about her story gave me this different sense of king of purpose and hope for not only my future, but the future of so many black and brown dancers. And I felt like I had a different type of responsibility than I ever thought I did in kind of carrying out the efforts of what so many black and brown dancers intended for their careers or dreamed that they could have had only half of what you have. And it was amazing to actually meet her and share something really special. But it started with my book, Black Ballerinas in wanting to be able to highlight different dancers whether or not they had gone on to dance in professional companies, but showing the journey of all of these dancers and that. It's been this collective effort to get me to this point and so many other black and brown dancers and that they really are a part of ballet history. Not black ballet history, ballet history as a whole. And I got to give a little glimpse of Raven's story as she was profiled in that book. And then this idea kind of grew. I had wanted to write a book about Raven for many years, but it transformed into it being about her impact on me and on the ballet world and about how she kind of pushed me to see more in myself. And it was such an emotional journey. She had passed already. I was pregnant at the time when I was writing it. I gave birth, finished to the book, like, two days later. It was such a crazy, emotional and hectic time. But I think it just added to the book in a really meaningful and beautiful way.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:13:28]:
That's so beautiful.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:13:30]:
I like this kind of theme of Misty, you were dealing with an injury, with being pregnant and then not having dancing in your life in that moment, and then kind of like finding these other ways to connect. And I think Leyla king of the same right, finding ways. How can we all still connect to ballet? And that's something that Michael and I certainly feel all the time, too, which is why we like to do this. So how did the idea of you guys coming together and collaborating in a new way come about life?
Misty Copeland [00:14:01]:
Who wants to start?
Leyla Fayyaz [00:14:05]:
I stopped dancing professionally after only, well, one year in Abt. And then I was like, well, maybe I'm not fully content because I need to do contemporary work. So I danced at Ballet Tech for a year, and then, cool, I've talked.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:14:22]:
For them, and I know really well. Yeah.
Leyla Fayyaz [00:14:24]:
And so I was like, oh, no, I think this is not for me professionally. And there's so much like and I know this is a newly ongoing conversation, which is a conversation that needs to be had, but about mental health and how to allow a dancer to phase into a company professionally because it's very different from going from a school and being a student and then being thrust into this world. So I think for me, at the time, that was back in 2001 or whatever, it was difficult to go through that and to go through that on my own. And luckily, I did have a friend like Misty, but I ended up going back to school and studying film and television, and I became a TV writer and producer for the past 18 years. And I think around 2015 or 2016, misty and I, we had a conversation. I was like, you're doing so much with your voice. You're amplifying your voice. You should have a production company. Let's start a production company together. And she was like, I don't know what that would entail. And I was like, I don't either, but I know a little bit about production. Let's see what we can do. And so that started our journey. And I think, like Misty said over the course of the pandemic, was really when we buckled down and figured out what we were trying to say and what we were trying to do with all of this. Yeah. Misty, do you want to say more about what we're doing?
Misty Copeland [00:15:57]:
Yeah, I think that for me, it's always been difficult to see the way that ballet is perceived, how it's shown in film and on television and media, because Leyla and I have always felt like this is not a true representation of all of the layers and all that we are as artists and ballet dancers. It's so one sided, and it keeps perpetuating the same tropes. And we want to show I always say, I can't imagine a mother parents watching the black Sean and feeling like, oh, I want to put my child in ballet. I feel like that sounds great, right? It's doing us disservice. What are the stories we can tell within this art form and beyond that are going to make people want to be a part of the arts and see the importance of it and see the value of it? And so it's kind of evolved from there. We definitely have a lot of dance content that we're developing, but beyond that, it's really, I think, about telling authentic stories, stories that, you know, about women, women of color, of artists. So we've got a pretty big range of things that we're developing. But Flower, our short film that premiered, I guess, two weeks ago now, maybe at Tribeca Film Festival, was really the first that has actually we've seen through, and it's beautiful just how it came about during the pandemic. And I think that it's a really good representation of who we are and our voice as life in motion productions. And that sets us apart. That's really unique. And I don't think we've seen storytelling in this way, and it's exciting.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:18:03]:
So you kind of developed this idea for the production company. You're talking about the stories you want to tell. You have ideas for projects. How does Flower become your first priority and your first output? And tell us kind of how the initial idea came about for this particular film.
Leyla Fayyaz:
Well, Misty had been performing, and Nelson George, who did the documentary at Ballerina's Tale about almost ten years ago now, he had gone to see Misty perform, and afterwards they had a conversation, and he was like, on stage, you're a storyteller and you're acting. Right? And I would love to translate that onto the screen, maybe that we can do, like a silent film or play on a silent film. And so it sort of evolved from there. Then they came to me, and we started developing this idea and figuring out what story we wanted to tell. It really came down to like, well, Missy, what story is important to you? What community is important to you? And we feel like ballet, classical ballets, full length ballets are stories that have a message and a theme, but they're all from, like, the 18 hundreds. And so a lot of times, they're not relatable or they don't feel current. And so if the idea is to bring in new audiences, to be exposed to dance and to be exposed to ballet, it's very hard to do that if you're showing them something that they don't relate to. And so we're focusing on this community in Oakland, California. Oakland is a city that's near and dear to Misty's heart. Her husband's from there, and she's been going for like 15 years, back and forth. And it has this incredibly rich social, cultural awareness life. The kids are doing youth activism. And there's all of these organizations that intertwine movement and art and music and social justice. And so we were inspired by that community, but we also were like, what did they have to say? What's going on in that community? So we went and did a research trip in Oakland, and we met with different organizations and kids and adults and the mayor. And we noticed that there's a huge housing crisis because of gentrification, first because of big tech in silicon ballet. But it sort of permeated. And now we're seeing it across the country. There's a lot of homelessness and houselessness. And so we wanted to figure out a way to show that story, but not from the perspective that you've seen on screen before, which I think we all have this idea of what a homeless person looks like from TV shows or movies. And it's always the same. It's like an older man of color wearing really scrappy clothes and kind of panhandling or something. And we're like, well, that's not the real story, because 40 million Americans right now are in danger of becoming houseless. So of those 40 million, they don't all look the same. It can happen to anybody. And so the story that is being told, Misty's character, she stars in it, and it's absolutely incredible. It's about life. A woman who is in danger of losing her home, her childhood home. And we end up casting with Christina Johnson. The legendary Christina Johnson from Dance Theater of Harlem. We also have Babatinji Johnson, who they're not related, even though they're both Johnson's. But he has an incredible story himself, and he's absolutely incredible dancer. He moves so fluidly and he can do any style. He was self trained. Now he dances a lot with Lions Ballet, but he choreographs as well. And he started with break dancing, can pretty much do anything.
So the two of them were our main co stars with Misty. And then we had people from the community be a part of the film that was really important to us. We're telling their story. We want them to be telling their own story. So we have turf dancers, which is another really interesting thing. Dance is universal and every city has their own style of dance that they've created on the streets or in different communities and neighborhoods. And so there in Oakland, it's turf dancing. And so there's lots of turf dancers in the film and we even feature some baby ballerinas. It all sort of came together. I mean, it was definitely a difficult process doing it during COVID and during the pandemic, lots of challenges and things like that. But it came into this beautiful picture and everybody we've shown so far, the film has really resonated on so many different levels. Like whether it was just connecting so much with Misty's character or and what she's dealing with in the film. Her mother has Christina Johnson has dementia, or if it was somebody who has experienced houselessness in their life, or just young kids who are loving dance and loving the music that we have in there. We had raphael Sadiq did the music. So overall it's been an amazing and rewarding experience to put the film out into the world because we're like, wow, people like it and they get it and make more of this kind of stuff.
Misty Copeland [00:23:16]:
Again, during the pandemic, we've been pitching many shows and developing many shows. So it wasn't that we were like, oh, Flower is going to be the first. It just happened. And once we realized what it could be, we really put all of our focus into it. But it just happened. Be the first one to develop and come to fruition.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:23:42]:
Could we hear a little bit more about the filming process you've already brought up? It was during movie, so there's just so much to dive into life. The logistics of that and the story is heavy business. Was it emotionally wearing on you guys as you're in the filming process? Kind of just go through what the day to day was like for us.
Misty Copeland [00:24:04]:
We're laughing because there's so many layers to it and I think it's important for people to hear that nothing's easy in life. I think there's something so beautiful about going through the process like this. And when creating art, it makes you appreciate it more. It really allows you to really dive in and understand the characters more. I think when you have the time and you're as hands on as leyla and I have been as producers throughout the entire project, of course I was in it, but we didn't kind of just step back as producers and let things happen. It was really collaborative, whether it was with Alonzo King, who is choreographer, our director Lauren Feynrman, rich and Tone who are choreographers for the Street Dancers, or even just within the community, allowing their voices to be heard and really be a part of the story that we were telling. But Leyla, can, I guess, walk you through the process of life from beginning to end of what it took, from raising the funds to finding the right team, to the editing process. It's been a journey, right?
Leyla Fayyaz [00:25:13]:
Somebody told me I think it was Mary Joe when we were at the Jacob Burns Center. But she said something like she always says, if you want to get something done, give it to a dancer. Yeah, I love that you always find a way. There's something about and I think that's so important, too. With Missy and my story, I didn't continue on dancing in the ballet company, but the skills that I learned from being a classically trained dancer or dancer in general, and being in a company and then going into another profession, those skills, they can take you anywhere. It's that determination and that hard work ethic, the ability to put on the blinders and just go. So, yeah, we did have a lot of challenges and a lot of stress, very stressful process. But I think I would encourage people to do something like this because you're not relying all of our other development that we're doing. It's like we have these gatekeepers who are telling us whether we can go or not. We're waiting for this green light all the time. And even when we get a green light, sometimes it doesn't end up working out life. We're just constantly throwing coals in the fire because our fate is not in our hands. But with this, it was like we did everything from start to finish. It made it so much harder, so much harder. But like Misty said, it feels so much more gratifying. Gratuitous, because we did it all on our own and we made it happen. The only person who was going to do it was us. So it started with fundraising, which was very challenging. And I think going into it, Misty would always say, I want to make sure people don't think life we're these two little dancers. Because sometimes dancers get life pigeonholed in that way as well, because there's such a hierarchical structure in the dance studio where you have your teacher or your coach, and then it's always like student teacher type of thing. So we can be very like, yes. And so this was really just like being a boss. We're going to come in here and we're gonna pitch you, and we want we want you to give us money to make this film and believe in what our idea is. So that was like it was a learning process to even get to that point. And then, of course, to get enough money and funding to make the film was tough, especially during a pandemic when no one knew what was happening. But we did it. And I think it's a testament also to Misty and her work ethic. It's taken her through her whole career of being incredibly resilient, regardless of how people may have viewed her or stigmatized her or thought that we're not going to give you this opportunity. She made her own opportunities and she figured it out. And she was constantly coaching me and cheering me on, which is so necessary. You always need to have somebody in your corner. And she was like, every time something wasn't going right, she's like, It's okay, just keep going. Just keep going. And so we did. And we got to the point where we raised the funds and we got to Oakland so that we could shoot a concept trailer life, not even like the full film, like, something to get more money to make a full film. And we did it. And we put it together in like 72 hours. And we came back to New York City and a week later, everything was shut down. It was like March 7, 2020, and then March 13, 2020, everything got shut down. But even there, we still buckled down during the time when everyone was just at home king watching shows and things, we got on the computer and we're doing zooms with people. And luckily people were interested and they were like, we want to see we believe in you, Misty. And I guess we believe in you, too, Leyla, because and we want to see what you can make and what you can do and to keep going. So many people are so supportive of Misty at this stage in her career because it's like, she has already done so much. Show us what else you can do. And this is the next iteration of that. It's getting a film like this or exposure in more households and out there so that people start to normalize this experience, this arts experience. And it doesn't become something that's niche or that you have to have been exposed to by your parents. It's just like a community thing. I think that those were all challenges, getting us to that point and that process. And then shooting was difficult because, again, it was during the pandemic, we had to pay a lot of money to do extra testing and safety procedures for COVID. We ended up getting a false positive on set and having to shut down the production for a whole day, which out of six days, that was a big one for us. We lost a lot of precious footage. And so then we had to regroup. And again, these are all these challenges and roadblocks that are happening. And we had to regroup and figure out how we were going to finish the film. So months later, we went back and we shot again. But at that time, Misty was pregnant. We then had to figure out how we were going to shoot this to shoot from.
Misty Copeland [00:30:42]:
It was the big dance scene that we hadn't shot. So it was crazy. I remember leyla we shot it at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which wasn't we had a theatre booked in Oakland originally, and it was a blessing in disguise.
Misty Copeland [00:30:59]:
Remember Leyla arriving on the set and seeing me in this costume, and first thing she was like, oh my God, your boobs are so big. And I was like, I know.
Leyla Fayyaz [00:31:11]:
I was trying to get continuity. Yeah. I mean, those extra scenes that we had to go back and reshoot ended up being my favorite scenes in the whole film. I think that every time we had these challenges and these things that came up when we pivoted and we found a solution, as dancers do, it always turned out to be a better outcome. So it's always like, okay, happy accident. We'll find something better.
Rebecca King Ferraro:
Your next project is going to feel so easy. You're going to be like, oh, we don't have to go through any of these hoops. Awesome. Baptism by fire with this one. The editing process, to me, it was.
Misty Copeland [00:31:54]:
Such a big learning curve, but also really gratifying to really be a part of that's another aspect of storytelling that I'd never knew about in order to really appreciate. And then once we finally got something we were happy with, then it was like, okay, well, now we need to get it out there. And so Leyla went through the whole process pretty much on her own, submitting to all the festivals. And we came up against another issue, which we weren't really aware of when we made the film. But it's a long short, so it can't really fit into a short program within a film festival because it's 28 minutes long. We were very fortunate with Tribeca that they just fell in love with it, and they decided to give us a standalone premiere screening, which doesn't happen with shorts. So it was a really beautiful experience. And then they ended up finding a way. They made us the last in their shorts program. But it did take away spots from a lot of shorts because we took a chunk of time. So we learned a lot. We learned a lot with this. But really our intentions were to get it out there to as many people. We're doing a ton of screenings at different organizations and schools, public schools, for children to be able to see it and see this form of storytelling. But we're looking for distribution, and we're hoping that this would be the first episode in a series of using this form of storytelling with social justice and focusing on different communities and what they're going through in these communities and also highlighting the dance styles within these communities.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:33:35]:
You guys are setting up free viewings, is that right? If people listening wanted to try to do that in their community, tell us how they can go about it.
Leyla Fayyaz:
So we're working on social impact screenings across the country and maybe even internationally as well. If you go to at Oakland Flower Film. It's our instagram handle. There is a link there that will tell you how to submit a request to be part of the Social Impact Screening Tour, and so they've been free. There is also an option for us to make an appearance if we're able to. But really, the point is to just get it out there, get this kind of content out there. The power of media, film and television and multimedia to shape minds, and it's like everything that we perceive about the world comes from the content that we're taking in. So for us to tell these positive stories but also expose people to the arts and specifically dance and ballet, it's really important, and we're hoping that this will be really effective.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:34:42]:
Right. I think what you're doing is super important and beautiful, but I want to circle back to something that I feel like is equally important to this storytelling. And it's that you guys A, the amount of work that you've done, you put into it. But also, I think it's important to know that people are successful who are guiding these stories. Like, you guys, you do experience imposter syndrome. It's such a dancer thing that you go back to that, like you said, life, student, teacher mentality, but that you bonded together and supported one another to push past that and to make this project happen. I think that's also a uniquely dancerly thing. But it is funny how we can just kind of gaslight ourselves into thinking that we don't deserve something or, like, we can't do something because we're so highly skilled in one arena. And then you kind of have an expectation that maybe you have to be as good as that in other things, but it's okay to learn and to grow.
Leyla Fayyaz [00:35:46]:
Yeah. I feel like Misty and I have spoken about this a few times, but we've been really honest and forthcoming about that. This is the first time we're going through this process. I'm like, I'm an Emmy winning TV producer and writer for 18 years. That's a long time, but I've never made a film. So we've been really open with people about that. Sometimes people have taken advantage of that, of us, and then other times, people, it makes them maybe not have faith in us or have trust in us, but I think at the end of the day, the support that we have for one another helps to keep us on the track of, like, we can get this done. And then I told Misty after Tribeca, I was like I was like, we can do this. This is easy. Not rocket science. We got this. But it was only after going through the whole process of experiencing it and learning it that I'm like, okay, we can do this. Now, number one, we're moms, so we're superheroes already from that. And number two, we're dancers. We can do anything.
Rebecca King Ferraro:
And I think also, it could be easy for people to think, like, oh, it's Misty Copeland. The opportunities just fall in her lap. That might be something that people can think. And so I think it's so important to hear how much legwork you guys had to put in, kind of regardless.
Misty Copeland [00:37:06]:
Yeah, it's been interesting. It's not hard for us to have a door open for us and get a meeting. Sure. I'd say 90% of the time our experience has been that everyone shows up to those meetings because they want me to sign books for their kids and take pictures, and that's it. And then nothing comes of it. And it's really just life a free opportunity for them to have a meeting and then they don't know what we're capable of. We just have to keep going. We had to take things into our own hands and really create something on our own and say, this is what we can do. That's why I think Flower is so special as our first film because it's something that we did on our own. But going back to what you were saying about imposter Syndrome, I think that it's important to recognize the value that we bring from our experiences. That we may not have all the skills yet to do this specific thing, but we bring so much value from what we've learned as dancers, from what Leyla has also learned as a writer and producer, and that there's so much to take from that.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:38:25]:
I love what Leyla said to her. You're just like, I have an Emmy. Remind yourself. Right? You're just like I'm good. I have value.
Leyla Fayyaz [00:38:35]:
Well, I bring up the moment when we were trying to fundraise and somebody said something like, well, you're going to have a hard time fundraising because if people know you just had a baby and I was just like, I remember I just had a baby. I'm feeling really good about myself because I just had a baby. I can do anything. That's like, crazy. But I also think back to when I was dance. I'll never forget one time when I was starting point work and my shoes there was like, blood coming through my point shoes. Right. And I just kept going. And you just keep blisters and all this and you just keep dancing. Every day you come into the studio, you're so sore. You're like, I can barely walk. I can barely climb the subway stairs to get to the studio. But once you get in the studio, you do it. And to get through that kind of pain and mental strength, I think, is like no other. You can't tell me I can't do something at this point, right? So good. I love it.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:39:37]:
So Flower just the first in what we hope are many productions. Can you tell us a few things you have in the pipeline right now?
Leyla Fayyaz [00:39:45]:
Yeah. Leyla, do you want to yes. So we are really excited because we've been working for actually a couple of years now on a feature film about Maria Tall chief. So that should be really exciting. And we've been doing, like, a lot of we want to make sure we're really authentic to the story. And so we have some very important people as part of the project who will help us get to that authentic part. We're also working on some animated series. We're working on a documentary about Misty at this stage in her career, which I think is something that's so relatable to so many people and just this iconic figure who has paved a path for so many. And, like, what's next? What's the next chapter? And what Smith see? What else do we have on the list? We've got a bunch of stuff going on.
Misty Copeland [00:40:43]:
There's a lot of things I don't know what we can and can't talk about.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:40:49]:
So I think that after a project like this that had so many hurdles that you had to overcome, it could have been possible to be like, okay, we've done that. Now we know what that's like. Check that off the bucket list. But it certainly sounds like you guys are even hungrier than ever to continue with this project. And so I think that's so great, and we absolutely look forward to seeing what you guys create in the future. But I just wonder, overall, what you hope that audiences take away from this beautiful film.
Misty Copeland [00:41:19]:
I hope that they see this form of storytelling and that they can relate to it and that they understand it, and they see the power of dance and the power of movement and that it's universal, that they see the hope and resilience within this story, that it all comes back to. Everything that I'm always talking about is having a support system, having a circle of people around you that you trust and believe in you. And community is such a big part of that. And I think within this film, that it's really about community and knowing that you're not in this alone, in this life and in this world. Yeah, the beauty of movement and storytelling on film.
Leyla Fayyaz [00:42:09]:
I agree completely what Misty said in terms of the film itself. I think also from the outside of the film, the story of how we made it and how we got it out there, I think that that is a great testament to all of the things she said about the film, like community and friendship and support, belonging, all of those elements. And then, of course, the homelessness issue, the housing crisis. This is something that we all need to take a closer look at and see how we can help affect the change and how we're connected to these stories. And this is stuff that's happening in our backyard. And so I hope that people just have some more empathy for this and see if they can help and join the cause.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:43:02]:
Well, thank you both so much for joining us. We hope all of our listeners go seek out the film, and we would love to have you back on to talk about any of your future projects. I Sean, a Maria tall chief feature. Sign me up.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:43:13]:
Absolutely.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:43:14]:
I'm a maria Stan. Thank you both so much.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:43:19]:
I think the moral of the story is if you want something done, have a dancer do it. We're going to put it on the pillow, embroider it. Thank you, ladies.
Misty Copeland [00:43:28]:
Thank you so much.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:43:34]:
Conversations on Dance is part of the Acast creator network. For more information, visit conversationsondancepod.com.