President Obama and Misty Copeland Interview

There’s a scene in a Ballerina’s Tale, a documentary about Misty Copeland’s ascension to the pinnacle of the ballet world, in which she confesses her fears.

“I feel like a lot of the time what I’m being judged on is my aesthetic,” she admits. “It may not be said, but a lot of the time I don’t think that the classical-ballet world will ever accept me because I’m something different.”

Since then, Copeland has become the first black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, and the question is less whether her peers will accept her than how much she will change the world of classical dance. That’s a transition she is still in the process of making, and one that has found her looking to an unlikely mentor, the first black President of the United States, for guidance. “How do you stay grounded, humble and striving?” Copeland asked Barack Obama during a Feb. 29 conversation at the White House moderated by TIME.

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