Misty Copeland

Copeland studied at the San Francisco Ballet School after winning the Spotlight award. While training with Bradley, she selected the workshop with the San Francisco Ballet over offers from the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theater of Harlem and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Of the programs she auditioned for, only the New York City Ballet declined to make her an offer. During the six week workshop, Copeland was placed in the most advanced classes. She was under full tuition plus expenses scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet summer workshop. At the end of the workshop, she received one of the few offers to continue as a full-time student at the school, but with encouragement from her mother to return home and from Bradley to return to the personal attention the Bradley family offered, she declined with visions of a subsequent summer with ABT. She returned home to controversy as her family resented the Bradley's influence. They asked Copeland to resume her residence with them, resume study at San Pedro High School and sought Cantine's advice on finding a new ballet school. Soon she began her junior year at San Pedro and her ballet studies with former ABT dancer Diane Lauridsen of Torrance's South Bay Ballet at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. As a student, Copeland had a 3.8/4.0 GPA through her junior year of high school.
Custody case
"The dismissal of the emancipation petition accomplished Sylvia's main goal of keeping the family bonds intact and strong, without interference by third parties.... Another concern of Sylvia in filing a request for restraining orders was that she did not believe it was in Misty's best interest to have continuing contact with the Bradleys. In the sworn declarations filed by the Bradleys in response to the restraining order they said that "we have not and will never do anything to interfere with Misty's relationship with her mother.... Since Sylvia has accomplished all of the goals that she intended to achieve when she filed her papers with the court we have chosen not to proceed to seek an injunction in this matter." —Gloria Allred