00:05I'm originally from Sierra Leone, West Africa, and I'm a ballet dancer with the Dutch National Ballet.
00:10I've been dancing for 16 years.
00:13Every little girl's dream is to be a princess, and I get to do it until I'm about 30 or
00:1740, so I'm pretty lucky.
00:20When I was growing up, there was a civil war. A lot of people were getting killed for no reason.
00:24I didn't really quite understand what was going on.
00:26I just knew that there was a lot of hatred around me.
00:29And also the fact that I had vitiligo was not very good for me.
00:33I was harassed and abused because of the way I looked.
00:36And when I was in the orphanage, they ranked us by favorites to least favorite, and 27 was the least
00:41favorite.
00:42And I was 27 because of my skin condition.
00:45Because it was white, I was called the devil's child.
00:48I found a magazine after, you know, witnessing so many horrible things, and this magazine saved me.
00:55And on the cover of the magazine was a picture of a ballerina, and her name is Magalie.
01:00And we just got to meet a few months ago, which has always been my dream.
01:04And she has always inspired me to become the person I am today.
01:08I am 9 out of 11 kids.
01:12My parents, they adopted 9 kids, and they're loving.
01:15And, you know, when I got adopted, I just was so surprised that I had such a big family,
01:20and I was surrounded by so many people who didn't care about what I looked like.
01:23They just cared about the fact that, you know, I was part of their family.
01:29It's hard to be a black ballerina in such an old world.
01:34The ballet world is very old, and it's very beautiful and very classical,
01:37but it makes it very difficult for people who stand out to actually go for this career.
01:43My parents had to do a lot in order for me to, you know, just look like the other girls.
01:47We all were supposed to wear nude color undergarments, and we didn't have nude colors.
01:54My mom kept looking and looking, and all she found was Caucasian colors,
01:58and it did not go with our skin.
01:59And so that's when my mom realized how to dye our undergarments,
02:03how to dye my pointe shoes, how to dye my elastics on my tutus that she used to sew for
02:07me.
02:10The fact that I am one of the darkest black dancers in the world is also very difficult.
02:17One of my favorite sayings is, don't be afraid to be a poppy in a field of daffodils,
02:21and I think we should be spreading out more poppies in our field of daffodils,
02:26and that just means I want more diversity in the ballet world,
02:28and I want more diversity in the arts.
02:31Sometimes they think that's enough to have a black male dancer in their company,
02:35or they'll have a really light-skinned African-American, and they say,
02:39oh, well, we have a black ballerina.
02:41And there's an old saying where if you're lighter than a brown paper bag
02:45or the color of a brown paper bag, you are black enough.
02:48And I don't think that that should be the case.
02:51I think you can be purple, you can have polka dots, you can have stripes,
02:54and you can still do what you love.
02:56You know, the audience, they come to escape from what they have been dealing with.
03:00They come to feel a different emotion that they've never felt before,
03:03and they're not looking at the fact that, you know, you're purple, you have an afro.
03:07They're not looking at that.
03:08They're looking at the fact that you're telling a story without having to use your words.
03:12The first time I really started talking about my story,
03:15it was very difficult for me to recover from it.
03:17It was a hard process.
03:18It was hard to focus in class.
03:20And I got this tattoo.
03:21I mean, a lot of people get tattoos, but it's always nice for me to look down and realize,
03:25you know, I'm not looking back at my past when I do tell my story.
03:28I'm telling it, but I'm able to continue my day.
03:31I'm able to continue working on what I've always been working on.
03:34This one's to thine own self be true.
03:37And this one is never look back.
03:39And I want people to know that if you want something, go for it.
03:42You know, nothing should be stopping you.
03:43Your past does not define who you are today.
