penpusher | #PrincipalMisty

As a fundraiser for both Advocacy and Artistic organizations, I've had some really interesting moments along the way. I've had the chance to have conversations with people I know you know, or at least have heard of, and that's typically enlightening, engaging and even sometimes fun.

For a while I was working for American Ballet Theatre, getting people to purchase memberships to help buoy the cost of presenting an art form that is all too frequently overlooked in our HDTV/3D Movie/Music On Demand world.

Our call area was located in a small office within the Dancers' Lounge. The lounge was a large break room for all of the company performers to relax, hang out, do some minor workouts (no Barre in the room but big two story picture windows that looked out onto Broadway, just north of Union Square), and generally prepare for the work they had to do in the dozen or so rehearsal halls on that floor or the two floors above it.

We didn't spend a lot of time interacting with the dancers, as we both had our own jobs to do, but it occasionally happened. And it was a pleasure to catch a glimpse of them working on their performances in the studios when we walked around the building. It was amazing to have the inspiration of those intent and intense performers right there to see: an indelible motivating factor in trying to get support for the company.

Certainly one of the highest profile dancers for ABT these past several years has been Misty Copeland. Misty's story has been fairly well told. Under Armour. She went on tour with Prince and helped give a whole new audience a taste of what ballet was all about.

Here's a sample of that work, taken from a few years ago on the now defunct late night talk show, "Lopez Tonight"

Watch on YouTube

Misty went on to perform bigger roles with other companies, roles that apparently ABT either didn't feel she, or the audience, was ready for her to play at that time.

It also didn't help that Misty suffered a severe leg injury while performing the extremely athletic Firebird. In 2012, a role for which she appeared, larger than life, on a billboard that hung from the front of the Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center that season.

Misty's rehab had her off her pointe shoes for about a year, but she was determined to get back to the form that got her where she was.

This season, American Ballet Theatre said goodbye to its long term principal dancer, Julie Kent. And that meant it was time to fill that place with a new dancer. With that, Misty Copeland became the first African-American principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre officially this week. The tributes came in from every corner of the world!

Of course, having had the chance to briefly meet her, I had to pay tribute as well, and on my twitter account, I listed "The Top 10 Anagrams for MISTY COPELAND," kind of a David Letterman nod in there, too.

Despite some PREVIOUS BAD LUCK with anagrams, I had created this list before I finished my tenure with ABT and originally posted the ten on Misty's Facebook Page (back when I was on Facebook). I figured this was the right moment to revive it for twitter and posted ten tweets with the ten anagrams.

My Misty Anagram List

Sometimes something you tweet, just like anything you might say in a crowd, gets a life of its own, and, in this case, Misty's sponsor, the nice people at Under Armour, saw and favorited all ten of my tweets, then sent over a truckload of flowers to congratulate Misty on her tremendous achievement, and they included this tiny part in it: