as an adult i was told i didn t have the right skin color, i was too muscular, i was too curvy, my breasts were too big. reporter: you wrote about an experience where your friend overheard an american ballet staff center said you didn t knit with your brown skin especially in a ballet like swan lake. do you remember how that affected you? yeah. i get emotional right now just thinking about it. i tried to understand the person s perspective and how deep rooted it is in the ballet culture. it s so easy for them to just say these things out loud not understanding the affect it can have on someone. reporter: misty proved her critics wrong and played the dual role of the white and black swan in swan lake in australia and will reprize the role for the washington ballet and the american ballet theater next year. reporter: i want to get to
my teacher said keep that letter because you re going to want to look back on it one day. as an adult i was told that i didn t have the right skin color. i was too muscular. i was too curvey. my breasts were too big. i was too short. reporter: you wrote about an experience years ago where your friend overheard an american ballet theater staff member saying that you didn t fit in with your brown skin. especially in a ballet like swan lake. do you remember how that affected you? yeah. i get emotional right now just thinking about it. i tried to understand the person s perspective. and how deep rooted it is in the ballet culture. it s so easy for them to just say these things out loud and not understanding the effect it can have on someone. reporter: misty proved her critics wrong and played the dual role of the white and black swan in swan lake in australia. and will reprice the role for the washington ballet and the
overheard a staff member saying you didn t fit in with your brown skin. especially in a ballet like swan lake. do you remember how that affected you? yeah, i get emotional right now just thinking about it. i try to understand the person s perspective. and how deep rooted it is in the ballet culture. it s so easy for them to just say these things outloud and not understanding the effect it can have on someone. reporter: misty proved her critics wrong and played the dual role of the white and black swan in swan lake in australia and will reprise the role for the washington ballet and the american ballet theater next year. i want to ask you about the moment you saw you in front of the met. is that did your heart just skip a beat? it was overwhelming and i didn t see myself up there.
overheard a staff member saying you didn t fit in with your brown skin. especially in a ballet like swan lake. do you remember how that affected you? yeah, i get emotional right now just thinking about it. i try to understand the person s perspective. and how deep rooted it is in the ballet culture. it s so easy for them to just say these things outloud and not understanding the effect it can have on someone. reporter: misty proved her critics wrong and played the dual role of the white and black swan in swan lake in australia and reprize the role for the american ballet theater next year. i want to ask you about the moment you saw you in front of the met. did your heart just skip a beat? it was overwhelming and i didn t see myself up there. i saw a black woman.