Misty Danielle Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an American ballet dancer, author, and producer who spent twenty-five years at American Ballet Theatre and, on June 30, 2015, became the first African American woman promoted to principal dancer in the company’s then-75-year history. The milestone made her famous; the dancing is what made the milestone hold. Copeland moved with an athlete’s power and a lyric dancer’s finish: a jump with real hang time (the suspended quality dancers call ballon), a plush, singing upper body over legs of visible strength, and a musicality that let her sit just behind the beat the way a great vocalist does. In an art form that had long treated her muscular build and brown skin as problems to be managed, she made both look like the standard everyone else had been missing.
Her rise broke every rule of the ballet pipeline. She took her first class at 13 on a Boys & Girls Club basketball court in San Pedro, California, was dancing en pointe (on the tips of the toes, a threshold that normally takes years) within about three months, and was a professional in New York by 18. At ABT she climbed from the corps de ballet to soloist (2007) to principal (2015), surviving a fractured spine, six stress fractures in her left tibia, and years as the only Black woman in an 80-dancer company. The breakthrough came in 2012, when she danced the title role in Alexei Ratmansky’s new Firebird at the Metropolitan Opera House with her face on the theater’s facade; the coronation came in June 2015, when she became the first Black ballerina to dance the swan queen Odette/Odile (the dual heroine of Swan Lake) at the Met, six days before her promotion. Along the way she toured with Prince, fronted a viral Under Armour campaign, wrote a New York Times bestselling memoir, and made her Broadway and Hollywood debuts.
Copeland retired from ABT on October 22, 2025, with a sold-out farewell gala at Lincoln Center, dancing through a deteriorating hip that was surgically replaced weeks later. The performing chapter is closed, but the work is not: she runs The Misty Copeland Foundation and its BE BOLD dance programs in the Bronx and Harlem, produces films through Life in Motion Productions, sits on boards at Lincoln Center and The Shed, and in March 2026, twelve weeks after hip replacement surgery, put her pointe shoes back on for a surprise appearance in the Sinners musical tribute at the Academy Awards.
People also read: Maria Tallchief (The Firebird), Raven Wilkinson (Les Sylphides), Mikhail Baryshnikov (Giselle), Debbie Allen (Sweet Charity)
Quick Facts
| Real Name: | Misty Danielle Copeland |
| Profession: | Ballet dancer, author, and producer |
| Born: | September 10, 1982 |
| Age: | 43 (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace: | Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Dance Style(s): | Classical ballet; contemporary |
| Training: | San Pedro City Ballet under Cynthia Bradley (via the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club); Lauridsen Ballet Centre; San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives on full scholarship |
| Rank Achieved: | Principal Dancer (American Ballet Theatre, 2015–2025) |
| Company / Affiliation: | Retired from American Ballet Theatre (October 2025); Founder, The Misty Copeland Foundation; Life in Motion Productions |
| Known For: | First African American woman promoted to principal dancer at ABT; the 2012 Firebird breakthrough; the Met’s first Black swan queen; rare crossover fame spanning Prince tours, Under Armour, Broadway, and bestselling books |
| Notable Roles & Works: | The Firebird in Firebird; Odette/Odile in Swan Lake; Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; Swanilda in Coppélia; Kitri in Don Quixote; Ivy Smith in On the Town |
| Awards: | NAACP Spingarn Medal (2021); Dance Magazine Award (2014); Time 100 (2015); Glamour Women of the Year (2015); multiple honorary doctorates |
| Zodiac Sign: | Virgo |
| Relationship: | Married to attorney Olu Evans (2016); one son, born 2022 |
| Years Active: | 2000–2025 (professional stage career); ongoing as author, producer, and philanthropist |
Featured Video
Video courtesy of TED on YouTube.
Early Life & Education
Copeland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 10, 1982, the fourth of six children of Sylvia DelaCerna, a former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader whose marriages and moves kept the family in constant motion. They landed in San Pedro, the port district of Los Angeles, where money ran short enough that Misty and her siblings spent stretches of her adolescence sharing a motel room, sleeping on the floor. She was an anxious, perfectionist child who suffered migraines, choreographed routines to Mariah Carey records in the living room, and hid the chaos at home behind early arrivals and immaculate grades. Movement was the one place the worry stopped.
Ballet found her at 13, catastrophically late by the field’s standards. Her middle school drill team coach, Elizabeth Cantine, saw something in the team captain’s line and pushed her toward a free ballet class taught by Cynthia Bradley on the basketball court of the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club. Bradley recognized a prodigy: a teenager who absorbed choreography on sight and was en pointe within roughly three months, when the process normally takes years. Copeland moved in with the Bradleys to train intensively at San Pedro City Ballet, danced Clara in The Nutcracker at San Pedro High School after only eight months of study (drawing around 2,000 people a show), took on Kitri in a school staging of Don Quixote, and in 1997, at 15, won first place at the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards as the best young dancer in Southern California. Watching ABT principal Paloma Herrera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion gave the ambition a face.
The ascent nearly broke on the way up. In 1998 a custody fight erupted between her mother and the Bradleys, complete with an emancipation petition filed on the 15-year-old’s behalf and restraining orders from her mother; both sides eventually dropped the legal proceedings, and the episode played out in the national press. Copeland returned home, finished her training with Diane Lauridsen at Lauridsen Ballet Centre in Torrance, and studied summers at the San Francisco Ballet School and then ABT’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship, where she was named ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000 and danced Kitri and worked with Twyla Tharp. Her mother insisted she finish high school, so she completed her senior year in San Pedro before joining ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000, one of six dancers chosen from the 150 in that summer’s program.
Career Highlights and Milestones
Copeland joined ABT’s corps de ballet in April 2001 at 18 and immediately learned how unforgiving the profession would be. Within eight months a lumbar stress fracture put her in a back brace and sidelined her for nearly a year; delayed puberty, then a medically induced one, changed her body almost overnight, and the company’s mirrors and costume fittings made sure she knew it. She was also, for virtually her entire ABT career, the only African American woman in a company of 80, an isolation she has described as nearly driving her out. Artistic director Kevin McKenzie enlisted writer Susan Fales-Hill to mentor her, and a network of accomplished Black women, along with the memory of pioneers like Raven Wilkinson, kept her in the building.
The soloist appointment came in August 2007, one of the youngest in company memory and the first Black woman at the rank there in two decades (published accounts differ on whether she was the second or third in ABT’s history, after Anne Benna Sims and Nora Kimball in the 1980s). Her soloist decade rebuilt her reputation from precise classical stylist into a modern interpreter: critics singled out her Gulnare in Le Corsaire, her Tharp roles in Sinatra Suite and Bach Partita, and created roles for Jorma Elo, who said she would be his first call if he formed a company. The fame arrived from outside the opera house: Prince cast her in his “Crimson and Clover” video in 2009 and put her on stage at Madison Square Garden during his Welcome 2 America run. Then came Firebird (Alexei Ratmansky) in 2012, her first Met lead, her image on the front of the Metropolitan Opera House, and a house visibly fuller of Black patrons than ballet was used to, a phenomenon ABT staff started calling the Misty effect. She danced the run on what turned out to be six stress fractures in her left tibia, underwent surgery, and spent roughly seven months fighting back to the stage.
What followed was the fastest late-career ascent in recent ballet memory. She debuted Odette/Odile with ABT in Brisbane in September 2014, created a role in Liam Scarlett’s With a Chance of Rain that fall, and became a national figure as Under Armour’s “I Will What I Want” ad went viral and her memoir Life in Motion hit the bestseller lists. In the spring of 2015 she danced her first American Swan Lake with The Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center opposite Brooklyn Mack, debuted as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet at the Met on short notice on June 16, and on June 24 became the first Black ballerina to dance Odette/Odile on the Met stage. Six days later, on June 30, 2015, ABT promoted her to principal, the first African American woman in the company’s history to hold the rank. New York’s senior critics were never unanimous about her; Alastair Macaulay’s notices in The New York Times often ran cooler than the public’s embrace, and the gap between critical reservation and cultural impact became part of her story. The public rendered its own verdict: a Time 100 cover, a Broadway debut as Ivy Smith in On the Town that August, and houses that sold out on her name.
Her principal decade added Kitri in Don Quixote (2017), the title role in Giselle (2018), a film debut in Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018), and, in 2019, Harlequinade opposite soloist Calvin Royal III, a rare Black partnership on the Met stage. A back injury that year, then the pandemic, then motherhood kept her off stage; a scheduled 2020 Romeo and Juliet with Royal, which would have been ABT’s first with two Black dancers in the title roles, vanished with the canceled Met season. She spent the hiatus building the second act: The Misty Copeland Foundation and its BE BOLD after-school ballet program (launched 2022), Life in Motion Productions and the Tribeca-premiered film Flower (2023), the Greatness Wins women’s athletic line co-founded with Derek Jeter (2023), and more books. On October 22, 2025, she returned after five years away for a farewell gala at the David H. Koch Theater, dancing MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and a Kyle Abraham world premiere, Wrecka Stow, with Royal, and closing with Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suite opposite longtime partner Herman Cornejo while Oprah Winfrey and Debbie Allen paid tribute and glitter fell from the rafters. She did it, doctors later confirmed, on a left hip ruined by bone spurs, a labral tear, and cartilage loss, and had the joint replaced that December. Twelve weeks later she was back en pointe at the Academy Awards in the Sinners tribute, a full-circle wink at the red-clad ballerina in the film’s juke-joint scene that audiences had read as a nod to her Firebird.
Selected Career Highlights
- 1996: Danced Clara in The Nutcracker after eight months of training, drawing about 2,000 people a show
- 1997: Won first place at the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards at 15
- 2000: Named ABT National Coca-Cola Scholar; joined ABT’s Studio Company
- April 2001: Joined American Ballet Theatre’s corps de ballet
- 2006: Created a role in Jorma Elo’s Glow-Stop
- August 2007: Promoted to soloist, the first Black woman at the rank at ABT in two decades
- 2008: Awarded the two-year Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts
- 2009–2011: Filmed Prince’s “Crimson and Clover” video and joined his Welcome 2 America shows at Madison Square Garden
- 2012: Danced the title role in Ratmansky’s Firebird at the Met, on six tibia stress fractures
- 2014: Debuted Odette/Odile in Swan Lake with ABT in Brisbane and created a role in Scarlett’s With a Chance of Rain
- 2014: Fronted Under Armour’s viral “I Will What I Want” campaign; published the bestselling Life in Motion
- June 2015: Met debuts as Juliet (June 16) and as the house’s first Black Odette/Odile (June 24); promoted to principal six days later, an ABT first (June 30)
- 2015 and 2018: Broadway debut as Ivy Smith in On the Town (2015); feature film debut in Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
- 2019: Danced Harlequinade opposite Calvin Royal III, a rare Black partnership on the Met stage
- October 2025 and March 2026: Farewell performance at ABT’s Fall Gala after five years away (October 22, 2025); returned en pointe at the Academy Awards in the Sinners tribute twelve weeks after hip replacement (March 2026)
Major Recognition
- NAACP Spingarn Medal, the association’s highest honor (2021)
- Dance Magazine Award, one of the art form’s most respected honors (2014)
- Time 100 Most Influential People, as a cover subject (2015); Glamour Women of the Year (2015); ESPN Impact 25 (2015)
- Appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (2014)
- Honorary doctorates from the University of Hartford (2014), New York University (2023), Wake Forest University (2026), and The Juilliard School (2026)
- Inducted into the Boys & Girls Club National Hall of Fame (2012); named the organization’s National Youth of the Year Ambassador (2013)
- Young, Gifted & Black honor at the Black Girls Rock! Awards (2013); DVF Award for Inspiration (2018); TheGrio Awards Trailblazer Icon Award and The Root 100 (2023); African American Film Critics Association Innovator Award (2024)
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Awards and Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Context | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards | Dance | First place at 15, roughly two years into training | Won |
| 2008 | Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts | Fellowship | Two-year fellowship for young artists of extraordinary promise | Awarded |
| 2012 | Boys & Girls Club National Hall of Fame | Induction | Alumna of the San Pedro club where she took her first ballet class | Inducted |
| 2013 | Black Girls Rock! Awards | Young, Gifted & Black | Honored during her soloist years | Awarded |
| 2014 | Dance Magazine Award | Career achievement | Among dance journalism’s most prestigious honors | Awarded |
| 2014 | University of Hartford | Honorary doctorate | For contributions to classical ballet and diversifying the art form | Conferred |
| 2015 | Time 100 | Most Influential People | Cover subject in the year of her historic promotion | Selected |
| 2015 | Glamour Women of the Year | Women of the Year | Recognized months after becoming ABT’s first Black female principal | Awarded |
| 2018 | DVF Awards | Inspiration | From the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation | Awarded |
| 2021 | NAACP Spingarn Medal | Highest honor | Joining a lineage of laureates from Marian Anderson to Hank Aaron | Awarded |
| 2023 | New York University | Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts | Conferred May 17, 2023; TheGrio Trailblazer Icon and Root 100 honors followed the same year | Conferred |
| 2024 | African American Film Critics Association | Innovator Award | For her producing work through Life in Motion Productions | Awarded |
| 2026 | Wake Forest University; The Juilliard School | Honorary doctorates | Juilliard’s conferral announced for its 121st commencement, May 2026 | Conferred |
Selected Roles & Works
| Year(s) | Role / Work | Production (Choreographer) | Company / Venue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–2007 | Created roles | Glow-Stop; C. to C. (Close to Chuck) (Jorma Elo) | American Ballet Theatre | Back-to-back world premieres made on her, the second set to Philip Glass; Elo said she would be his first call if he formed a company. Created roles. |
| 2007–2025 | Featured woman | Sinatra Suite (Twyla Tharp) | American Ballet Theatre | The Tharp thread ran her whole career; she closed her farewell with it opposite Herman Cornejo. |
| 2012–2016 | The Firebird | Firebird (Alexei Ratmansky) | American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House | The breakthrough: her first Met lead, her image on the opera house facade, danced on six tibia stress fractures. Her official bio describes the role as created on her. |
| 2012–2014 | Clara, the Princess | The Nutcracker (Alexei Ratmansky) | American Ballet Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music | A signature soloist-era lead in Ratmansky’s staging. |
| 2013 | Gulnare | Le Corsaire (after Marius Petipa) | American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House | A classical calling card of the soloist years, praised for its old-school finish. |
| 2014 | Swanilda | Coppélia (after Marius Petipa) | American Ballet Theatre | The comic-heroine lead that showed the wit under the power. |
| 2014 | Created role | With a Chance of Rain (Liam Scarlett) | American Ballet Theatre | World premiere made on her in the fall 2014 season. Created role. |
| 2014–2025 | Odette/Odile | Swan Lake (Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, after) | American Ballet Theatre; The Washington Ballet (guest) | First danced in Brisbane (2014); the Met’s first Black swan queen (June 24, 2015), six days before her promotion; revived at the farewell gala. |
| 2015 | Fairy Fleur de farine | The Sleeping Beauty (Alexei Ratmansky) | American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House | Created the role in Ratmansky’s new production. Created role. |
| 2015–2025 | Juliet | Romeo and Juliet (Kenneth MacMillan) | American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House | Debuted on short notice in June 2015; her stated all-time favorite role; danced its pas de deux at her farewell with Calvin Royal III. |
| 2015 | Ivy Smith (“Miss Turnstiles”) | On the Town (musical; choreography Joshua Bergasse) | Broadway, Lyric Theatre | Broadway debut in a limited late-summer engagement weeks after her promotion. |
| 2017 | Kitri | Don Quixote (Marius Petipa, staged by Kevin McKenzie) | American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House | The bravura comedienne role she had first tried as a San Pedro student, now at the Met. |
| 2018 | Ballerina Princess | The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (film; ballet sequence by Liam Scarlett) | Walt Disney Pictures | Feature film debut. |
| 2019 | Pirrette | Harlequinade (Alexei Ratmansky) | American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House | Opposite Calvin Royal III, a rare Black partnership on the Met stage; her last full Met season before injury and hiatus. |
| 2025 | Duet (created role) | Wrecka Stow (Kyle Abraham) | ABT Fall Gala, David H. Koch Theater | World premiere made for her farewell, danced with Calvin Royal III. Created role. |
Company & Career History
| Years | Company | Rank / Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996–1998 | San Pedro City Ballet / San Pedro Dance Center | Student | First classes at 13 with Cynthia Bradley at the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club; lived with the Bradleys to train. |
| 1998–2000 | Lauridsen Ballet Centre, Torrance | Student | Finished her training under Diane Lauridsen after the 1998 custody dispute; summers at San Francisco Ballet School and ABT’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship. |
| 2000–2001 | ABT Studio Company | Member | Joined September 2000, one of six chosen from roughly 150 Summer Intensive dancers; named ABT National Coca-Cola Scholar (2000). |
| 2001–2007 | American Ballet Theatre | Corps de Ballet | Joined April 2001 at 18; a lumbar stress fracture and back brace cost her nearly a year early in the tenure. |
| 2007–2015 | American Ballet Theatre | Soloist | Appointed August 2007, among the youngest in company memory and the first Black woman at the rank in two decades. |
| 2009–2011 | Prince tours and videos | Guest featured dancer | “Crimson and Clover” video (2009); Welcome 2 America appearances at Madison Square Garden (2010–2011). |
| 2015 | Broadway, On the Town (Lyric Theatre) | Guest principal (Ivy Smith) | Limited engagement, August–September 2015, weeks after her ABT promotion. |
| 2015–2025 | American Ballet Theatre | Principal Dancer | Promoted June 30, 2015, the first African American woman in company history; a 2019 back injury, the pandemic, and motherhood kept her off stage from 2020; farewell performance October 22, 2025. |
| 2021–present | The Misty Copeland Foundation; Life in Motion Productions | Founder | The second act: BE BOLD dance programs in the Bronx and Harlem, film producing, books, and board seats at Lincoln Center and The Shed. |
Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle
| Net Worth (2026) | Public estimates vary widely. Copeland has not disclosed a verified net worth figure. Treat numbers found online as unconfirmed. |
| Income Sources | ABT principal salary and performance fees during her stage career; book advances and royalties across eight titles; endorsements and brand partnerships; speaking engagements; a MasterClass; film and television producing through Life in Motion Productions; co-ownership of the Greatness Wins athletic wear line. |
| Guesting, Galas & Partnerships | Her endorsement portfolio has been unusually deep for a ballet dancer: an Under Armour ambassadorship since 2014 (the “I Will What I Want” spot drew more than 10 million views, per her published speaker bios), plus reported partnerships including Estée Lauder’s Modern Muse fragrance, Breitling, Seiko, COACH, American Express, and Diet Dr Pepper. In 2023 she co-founded the women’s line of Greatness Wins with Derek Jeter and Chris Riccobono. |
| Properties & Assets | Most detailed financial and property information is kept private; reliable public documentation is limited. She and her husband have been publicly reported to live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. |
| Lifestyle | A performer’s discipline redirected: since retiring she has publicly documented a patient rehabilitation from hip replacement surgery, runs a foundation and a production company, and balances the public work with raising a young son. She has said she enjoys cooking. |
All figures above are unverified estimates unless cited to a source. Copeland has never publicly confirmed a net worth figure.
Social Media & Online Presence
| @mistyonpointe, her anchor platform, where she announced her farewell simulcast and has documented her hip replacement recovery in candid detail. | |
| TikTok | @mistycopeland, an official account used for archival and behind-the-scenes material, including A Ballerina’s Tale clips. |
| X (Twitter) | @mistyonpointe, her longtime verified handle. |
| Misty Copeland, an official public page. | |
| YouTube | @MistyCopelandLifeInMotion, her official channel, hosting unreleased documentary clips and foundation content. |
| Company Profile | Her ABT roster page was retired with her October 2025 farewell; ABT’s coverage of her career remains at abt.org, and her foundation is at mistycopelandfoundation.org. |
| Official Website | Personal site at mistycopeland.com, with her bio, repertoire, books, and appearance news. |
NOTE: In addition to the official accounts listed above, many fan-run pages, appreciation accounts, and dance-history accounts exist across platforms. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Misty Copeland. Links and usernames can change at any time.
Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts
- Prince recruited her with signature mystery: as she recounts in her memoir, a black Town Car was waiting for her at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport when she arrived to work with him.
- Mattel released a Misty Copeland Barbie in 2016 as part of its Sheroes line, costumed after her Firebird.
- Her mother, Sylvia DelaCerna, was a professional cheerleader for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and had studied dance herself.
- Her Oscars return came so soon after hip surgery that, she told Variety, she had put her pointe shoes back on for the first time only days before the show and managed three steps in them.
- In 2016 she recreated Edgar Degas’s ballet paintings pose-for-pose for a Harper’s Bazaar portfolio, months after performing live with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
- Her doctors advised against the farewell performance altogether; she told NPR she was “barely walking” in the weeks before the gala and did it anyway.
Quotes
“This is for the little brown girls.”
– Misty Copeland, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (2014), the mantra repeated through the memoir’s prologue
“It was as if I’d been doing ballet all my life, and my limbs instinctively remembered what my conscious mind had somehow forgotten.”
– Misty Copeland, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (2014)
“I’m just so proud to be a part of this company’s history, because it is American, and it represents what America is. And I am that.”
– Misty Copeland, in Ric Burns’s documentary American Ballet Theatre: A History (PBS American Masters, 2015)
“Being onstage was the first time that I felt safe in my young life. I’ve always felt very protected when I was onstage.”
– Misty Copeland, NPR interview (November 2025)
“It’s been 25 years at ABT, and I think it’s time. It’s time for me to move to the next stage.”
– Misty Copeland, Associated Press interview (June 2025)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is Misty Copeland’s age?
A: Copeland was born on September 10, 1982, making her 43 years old as of 2026.
Q: What is Misty Copeland best known for?
A: Becoming the first African American woman promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre on June 30, 2015, and for a run of landmark performances including the 2012 Firebird and the Met’s first Black Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. She is also a bestselling author and one of the few ballet dancers with genuine mainstream celebrity.
Q: What company did Misty Copeland dance with, and at what rank?
A: She spent her entire professional career at American Ballet Theatre: corps de ballet from 2001, soloist from 2007, and principal dancer from 2015 until her retirement from the company in October 2025.
Q: Where did Misty Copeland train?
A: She started at 13 with Cynthia Bradley through the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club and San Pedro City Ballet, finished her training at Lauridsen Ballet Centre, and attended San Francisco Ballet School and ABT Summer Intensives on full scholarship before joining ABT’s Studio Company in 2000.
Q: Is Misty Copeland still performing?
A: She retired from American Ballet Theatre on October 22, 2025, and has said she is not retiring from dance entirely (“never say never”). Her one performance since, a surprise appearance in the Sinners tribute at the March 2026 Academy Awards, came twelve weeks after hip replacement surgery. No further performances have been announced.
Q: What are Misty Copeland’s most famous roles?
A: The title role in Ratmansky’s Firebird, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Swanilda in Coppélia, Kitri in Don Quixote, and her Broadway turn as Ivy Smith in On the Town.
Q: Does Misty Copeland have official social media?
A: Yes: @mistyonpointe on Instagram and X, @mistycopeland on TikTok, an official Facebook page and YouTube channel, and the websites mistycopeland.com and mistycopelandfoundation.org.
Upcoming Performances & Projects
- The Celebrating Misty Campaign (The Misty Copeland Foundation, through September 2026): the announced one-year, $1 million fundraising initiative tied to her farewell continues through September 2026, supporting the BE BOLD, BE BOLD Next Steps, and BE BOLDER dance programs in the Bronx and Harlem.
- Foundation programming (Bronx and Harlem, ongoing): the foundation’s free after-school and community dance programs are announced to continue into the 2026–2027 season; details are subject to change until confirmed by the organization.
- Life in Motion biopic (in development, date TBA): a feature adaptation of her memoir has long been reported in development at New Line, with director Nzingha Stewart attached per earlier trade reports; as of mid-2026 she has said she is developing a feature film, and no production timeline has been announced. Treat as subject to change.
- Animated series and an eleventh book (announced, dates TBA): in 2026 interviews she has described animated series projects and a new book in progress; no publishers, platforms, or dates have been confirmed.
- Future performances (unannounced): no stage engagements are currently scheduled. She has repeatedly said the ABT farewell “won’t be the end of me dancing,” so treat any reported appearance as provisional until confirmed.
Interviews & Features
- NPR, “Ballerina Misty Copeland takes a final bow with American Ballet Theatre” (November 2025), a long, candid conversation about the farewell, the hip that nearly stopped it, and what safety on stage meant to her.
- Variety, “Misty Copeland on Her ‘Sinners’ Oscar Performance After Retirement and Hip Surgery” (March 2026), the first interview on her surprise Oscars return.
- Forbes, “Misty Copeland’s Cathartic Retirement Performance at American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala” (October 2025), a scene report from the farewell with the full program and tributes.
- Pointe, “Misty Copeland Launches Her Own Foundation and Free After-School Program” (September 2022), an interview on the design of BE BOLD and her philosophy of access.
- Avenue, “ABT’s Misty Copeland and Calvin Royal III on Romeo and Juliet and Their Legacy as Dancers” (March 2020), the feature on the historic partnership the pandemic postponed and the farewell finally delivered.
Public Appearances & Events
- New York (October 22, 2025): Gave her farewell performance at American Ballet Theatre’s Fall Gala at the David H. Koch Theater, with tributes from Oprah Winfrey and Debbie Allen and a free public simulcast at Alice Tully Hall.
- New York (November 17, 2025): Attended The Costume Institute’s Spring 2026 exhibition press presentation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ahead of her 2026 Met Gala host committee role.
- Hollywood (March 15, 2026): Made a surprise return to the stage at the 98th Academy Awards, dancing en pointe in the ensemble performance of “I Lied to You” from Sinners.
- New York (April 29, 2026): Chaired The Misty Copeland Foundation’s Spring Benefit at The Pool + The Grill, raising funds for the Celebrating Misty Campaign.
- New York (May 4, 2026): Attended the 2026 Met Gala, “Costume Art,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a member of the host committee.