The Cindy Bradley Story: Misty Copeland & The San Pedro City Ballet By Writer and Contributor NJ Jaeger
On her way to fulfilling her dream of starting a ballet school Cindy Bradley sees a tiny girl sitting alone on top bleacher of the Boys and Girls Club gym and invites her to join the ballet class. This shy 13 year old child became the world renowned ballerina Misty Copeland. This is the story of the remarkable teacher that discovered her.
Hear from Misty in Her Own Words: “Art Can Open Doors and Art Matters” https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GBPglCCLF9ukLjv36wxSfLoR9pFIrLK-/view?usp=sharing
Before founding the San Pedro City Ballet with husband Patrick; before discovering the prodigy Misty Copeland; before her own career in dance, Cindy Bradley felt her destiny was to bring the joy of dance - to- every child regardless of their economic situation.
From her first childish steps in an Atlanta Georgia basement, the passion to share what she felt for ballet took hold of her. Cindy says, “I had seen dance on film and television and I thought they were just these special people that got to do it. I didn’t know you could get lessons and learn. I had something inside of me that really wanted to seek out how to dance. I actually found dance class in my neighborhood in a woman’s basement when I was riding my bike. That’s where I discovered people like me could learn ballet. I fell in love with it from the very first class, and after three lessons, I gathered children up from the neighborhood and put them in my basement and started teaching.”
The Atlanta Ballet Changed Everything
Cindy took classes at a neighborhood ballet school in a strip mall for a year where her teacher said she needed better training than she could offer. Cindy says, “My mother drove me a very long distance to the Atlanta Ballet where I was introduced to the formal world of ballet for the first time, and I was hooked for the rest of my life.”
Cindy’s father position at the Federal Aviation Administration required frequent moves, and her father chose postings in those cities that would keep her near a leading ballet school. Cindy says, “It saved me really because I always had a place I belonged in each city.”
As she matured Cindy noticed the majority of ballet schools were located in low income areas where they could get a lot of affordable space. Cindy knew the neighborhood kids playing outside were not getting the options she enjoyed and wanted to change that.
At the time there were no professional youth ballet companies, so as a preteen and teenager Cindy was dancing with adults in professional ballet companies. Cindy suffered an injury that cut short her professional career in ballet but she says, “It wasn’t a huge heartbreak for me because I had been teaching in San Diego, and wanted to do choreography and one day have my own school. It was always my goal to spread the gospel of ballet. I was just passionate about it.”
Cindy Meets Fellow Dancer Patrick Bradley
Cindy moved to the area and taught in Palos Verdes for nine years. “I loved it and I loved the dancers there. I met my husband Patrick who was dancing with another company and then he started dancing with the company I founded, we fell in love, and started to talk about our future. We both wanted to start a nonprofit to teach kids who were unable to have that opportunity. Patrick was a high school art teacher as well and that’s when Patrick and I came to San Pedro ad started the San Pedro City Ballet.”
Cindy says, “In 1984 we started with eight dancers that I had been training for ten years, all fabulous dancers and together we went around town and put up hand written notices up for Nutcracker auditions, no experience necessary, about 60 people showed up, none of the had any experience, we had eight core dancers and that was the first San Pedro City Ballet Nutcracker danced at San Pedro High School where Patrick was teaching at the time. “
The Beginnings of the San Pedro City Ballet
Watch A Compilation of Ballet Performances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0VZxHAeTxE
Cindy and Patrick quickly learned that they had to get out into the community and one of the first places Cindy went was the Boys and Girls Club. “The area missed the ballet school that had closed and we thought that if we opened the doors dancers would just come, and if they could pay they would and if they couldn’t they wouldn’t.“
Cindy started a free class at the Boys and Girls Club Gym and invited a tiny girl sitting alone on the back bleacher to join the ballet class. It took weeks until this shy child joined the class. Misty Copeland had no ballet training, was 13 years old and stood 4’10’’ and weighed 65 pounds.
Cindy says, “I had her place her hands on the bar so I could her how to put her foot to the front, this move called a Tendu, I touched it and got a feeling that I can’t really describe. I looked up at her and although she was really tiny, I saw a halo of light shining around her, and I just had a feeling that this was one of the most special students I would ever teach. As the class progressed she was able to hold any position that I put her into. At the end of class I wrote a note to her mother offering her a full scholarship and explaining that once a week at the gym would not be sufficient to teach her what she should need to become a ballerina and she would need to be in a studio setting.”
Every week Misty would come to class and even with just one class a week progressed. Every week Misty would come back and Cindy asked her, “Why don’t you come to the studio? Misty replied, “I don’t have a ride.” Cindy said, “I can pick you up from school and take you to the studio.”
Cindy sat in the car in front of Dana Middle School and once in the car would ask her about her day. Cindy says, “She would give me one word answers. She was really talkative with the eight original dancers that were there. She took all of the classes from ones with the little kids all the way up to the older kids. Three months later she was already on point rehearsing for the lead in Nutcracker, then her mother called and said she needed a ride home that night and that she was going to have to quit ballet.”
Cindy drove her home and saw her safely inside the motel room with her mother. Cindy says, “I was very sad, and on the way back in the car I said to myself: what am I going to do about this, I’m leaving the most gifted person I’ve ever seen in my life. Cindy turned the car around and went back to the room and knocked on the door and spoke with her mother. She told Misty mother her own story, about how she went away to dance, and asked her to let Misty come and live with her family during the week. Cindy says, “It took a few minutes but she did agree to it. I told her that I thought ballet was her path in life. Misty’s mother asked if she wanted to wait until Monday or go with me that night, and Misty said she wanted to go home with me that night.”
Misty is Going to Live with Us
Cindy said she drove home thinking, “We had just opened the studio, just bought a condo, and we had a two year old, so everything was brand new; now I am coming home with a 13 year old child and I didn’t have a chance to warn him.
Misty and Cindy arrive at the condo and Cindy opens the door and says, “Patrick I’m home, and Misty is with me, and she is going to live with us, Patrick responded, OK, I’ll set another place at the table. I mean he didn’t even take a breath. I don’t know how he was able to not react.”
Wolf Says, “There’s Somebody in My Room!”
Patrick had picked up Chinese food for dinner and Misty had never eaten Chinese food, Cindy says “I could literally see the food in her belly, she was so little and she couldn’t eat very much. Then it was time to go to bed and we only had two bedrooms and while our son Wolf was asleep we took the couch cushions and put them on the floor next to his bed.”
Cindy says “Misty liked to sleep with her hair fanned out and the sheet pulled up to hide her face. The next morning running my son Wolf ran into the kitchen and said excitedly, there’s somebody in my bedroom! Yes, that’s Misty and he knew Misty from the studio, so he went and jumped on her, they frolicked, and they became best buddies. Misty gave Wolf so much love and he showed off for her constantly. “
Patrick came from a Sicilian household where his grandmother taught him to cook, he cooked for the family all the time and Misty had a stable home for the first time. Because she had a lot of time to make up we began home schooling her so she could go for private instruction.
In 1996 Cindy submitted Misty for a high school student arts competition open to students throughout California called, The Spotlight Award; the final 2 students in each category would compete at the Music Center in front of super star judges. With minutes to go before the competition Cindy realized Misty was so short she might not be able to see the ‘ spotting light’, a light dancers need to see through the blackness to the back of the theatre. Cindy says, “The spotting light was so high up I was worried that she would not be able to see it for her 30 tour jete turns, so we hurried to the Music Center parking garage, put on the cassette, and changed the choreography. She went onto that stage, and it worked, she had a big finish and she won, it was really incredible. It did so much for her, ballet schools around the country including the San Francisco Ballet School offered a full ride with flights and lodging etc.”
Misty had lived with Cindy, Bradley and Wolf for two years before winning the Spotlight Award, and each weekend she would go back to her mother’s location. “It was challenging getting her ready all along because I never certain she would come back after the weekend but we got through it.”
Misty’s performance created a lot of excitement, a lot of interest and a lot of offers. Cindy felt it would be wisest to wait another year so she could mature because she was so young, shy, and had not yet found her voice; however, Misty’s mother took a call from the San Francisco Ballet and afterwards Misty never returned to the Bradley’s. A year later, at 17 Misty went to the American Ballet Theatre in New York where she quickly became a soloist.
The Documentary Reconnection
After Misty was told the Bradley’s intended to keep her at the San Pedro City Ballet for her entire career, Misty’s connection to the Bradley’s was lost. Cindy says, “The huge void remained for many years. It was devastating for our son who loved her and for us.”
Years flew by as the San Pedro City Ballet grew and flourished, then a major Misty Copeland documentary was set to film at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles and its director prevailed upon a very reluctant Cindy to come for an interview. Upon seeing Misty Cindy said, “Where have you been all these years, I thought when she turned 18 you would come back and say hello? We talked and we have never been separated since that day. Wolf goes and visits her and I couldn’t be prouder of the woman she has become.”
Cindy and Patrick have been true partners and together they have created an inclusive youth-oriented school. “We wanted to create a happy place for everyone, to immerse themselves and learn. We’re seeing transformation in the way kids feel about themselves, especially the boys that get involved. The group of boys all supports each other. It’s all about planting seeds and transformation. That’s what I wanted, a healthy youth oriented school. “
Marcelo Ruggiero, Cash Blaustein, Raul Navarro, Grayson Motley
Community Support
Until the Nutcracker returns to San Pedro’s Warner Theatre now under renovation in 2026 the San Pedro City Ballet has found a beautiful home at the James R. Armstrong Theatre in the Torrance Cultural Arts Center. Cindy says, “It was such a gift that they invited us to become part of their season because we had no other options. We love it there its just beautiful.” To purchase tickets: https://www.torrancearts.org/shows/nutcracker-(san-pedro-ballet)
The San Pedro City Ballet’s connection to the port goes back years. They are a beneficiary of the Port of Los Angeles' Community Investment Grant Program, part of the Port's ongoing efforts to fund community programs and projects that benefit the Los Angeles Harbor area. Cindy says, “We did Swan Lake out at the marina with the water behind us, it was a really gorgeous setting beautiful setting. Now we do the Tree Lighting and many other events throughout the year.”
We See Transformations
Cindy says, “I don’t think the goal is make stars, I think the goal is to make a confident healthy person. In our studio we have the goal of social and emotional learning through dance and every year we see a huge, huge, impact. We’ve seen kids who are in the back of classroom, and then their teachers will tell us that they are in the front of the dance line, and then that makes a difference in the classroom, and it makes a difference on the playground, if they have a bad day on the playground. I think this should happen every day an every school of course!” Cindy then laughs with her characteristic good humor at her own fervent evangelism.
“We had an internship program going on for years with the San Pedro High School for our stage crew. We had several come out and be very successful lighting designers, one on Broadway.
The Bradley’s legacy is still being written. Son Wolf Bradley is a successful musician and songwriter who teaches baby ballet at the school where the children love him.
Don’t Miss Misty Copeland Mural Unveiling, Reception & Performance on October 5th! Bradley choreographed a duet, titled “Grit and Grace,” which will premiere at the mural unveiling.
To purchase tickets: https://www.sanpedrocityballet.org/upcoming-events/mural
Mural artist EL MAC (https://eimac.net/) will be in attendance, and the ceremony will conclude with champagne sabering. The mural was made possible by Arts United San Pedro (https://www.artsunitedsp.org/).
Misty Copeland said of the mural: “I’m incredibly honored to be featured in this stunning mural by El Mac at San Pedro City Ballet, my very first ballet studio and a place that will always feel like home. What he’s captured through my image is so much bigger than me, it represents every young person from this community and beyond who deserves access to the arts. This is such a beautiful tribute to where it all began for me.”
What: Misty Copeland Mural Unveiling Celebration
When: Sunday, October 5, 2025
Where: San Pedro City Ballet, 1231 South Pacific Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90731
Why: To unveil a mural of Misty Copeland by artist El Mac and raise funds for the San Pedro City Ballet scholarships to serve underserved populations.
Mural Unveiling: The highlight will be the unveiling of the new mural, made possible by Arts United San Pedro.
Meet & Greet: Attendees can meet and get autographs from the mural artist, El Mac.
Performances: San Pedro City Ballet principal dancers will perform.
Food & Music: The event includes hors d'oeuvres, beverages, and a vinyl DJ.
NJ is a storyteller who has written in many voices for clients in health, education, entertainment, food, sport and politics. Her firm managed publicity for documentary films, book authors and the U.S. Championships. NJ received the Lynn Weaver Award from the Entertainment Professional Publicists Society for her lifelong commitment to philanthropy and community volunteerism.