American Dancer
~!!~The plight of Copeland*s occasionally harrowing childhood, spent residing with various stepfathers, in motels and, for a time, with the family of her adoptive ballet instructors is a topic the now 32~year~old dancer refuses to shy from, sharing many of her family*s tribulations in her 2014 memoir, Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina//
~!!~The more difficult circumstances detailed in the book include fleeing an emotionally abusive stepfather, living in a gang~infested quarter of Downtown Los Angeles and, perhaps worst of all, engaging in a much~publicized emancipation battle fought between ballet instructors, Patrick and Cindy Bradley, and mother, Sylvia DelaCerna, the coverage of which stalked Copeland for years//