Misty Copeland
On June 30, 2015, American Ballet Theatre posted a single sentence on social media: "Please join us in congratulating Misty Copeland — the first African American woman to be named Principal Dancer in ABT's 75-year history." The announcement crashed ABT's website. Within hours, it was the lead story on every major news outlet in America. Copeland, who had been dancing en pointe for only thirteen years when she first joined ABT's corps de ballet, had just shattered one of the last and most visible racial barriers in the world of classical dance. She was thirty-two years old.
An Unlikely Beginning
Misty Danielle Copeland was born on September 10, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in San Pedro, California, in circumstances far removed from the typical ballet pipeline. Her mother, Sylvia DelaCerna, was a single parent raising six children, and the family moved frequently, sometimes living in motels. There was no money for dance lessons, no family tradition of the arts, no early childhood training at a prestigious academy.
Copeland discovered ballet almost by accident at age thirteen — absurdly late by classical standards, when most professional dancers have been training since age three or four. A middle-school drill team coach, Elizabeth Cantine, noticed her natural musicality and extraordinary flexibility and urged her to take a free ballet class at the Boys & Girls Club of San Pedro. The instructor was Cynthia Bradley, a former professional ballerina who immediately recognized something extraordinary: Copeland was a prodigy.
Within three months, Copeland was dancing en pointe. Within eight months, she won first place in a regional competition. Bradley, astonished at the speed of her development, offered to take Copeland into her home so she could train more intensively. By fifteen, Copeland had won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award — a first-prize honor previously claimed by future stars like Adam Shankman.
In 2000, at age seventeen, Copeland was invited to join ABT's Studio Company, its development program. By 2001, she was in the corps de ballet. The road to principal, however, would take fourteen more years — a journey shaped by both excellence and the persistent, painful realities of race in ballet.
Breaking Barriers in Ballet
Classical ballet has long been one of the most racially homogeneous art forms in Western culture. Its aesthetic ideals — developed in European courts and codified in the nineteenth century — implicitly centered whiteness: pale pink tights, light-skinned casts performing fairy tales set in European courts, and a body type that often excluded dancers with more muscular or curvaceous builds. Copeland confronted these biases at every stage.
At ABT, she rose through the ranks with a combination of extraordinary athleticism and emotional depth. Her breakthrough came in 2012 when she danced the lead role of the Firebird in Stravinsky's ballet of the same name — a performance that drew rave reviews and catapulted her into the national spotlight. That same year, she became ABT's first Black soloist in two decades.
Her performances in the great classical roles electrified audiences:
- Odette/Odile in Swan Lake (2015) — The dual role considered the ultimate test of a ballerina, and Copeland's debut in it at the Metropolitan Opera House became a cultural event.
- Juliet in Romeo and Juliet — Bringing warmth and fierce passion to the role.
- Giselle — Performing the Romantic-era classic with a delicacy that silenced doubters.
- Kitri in Don Quixote — Showcasing her technical brilliance and vivacious stage presence.
Her Under Armour commercial, "I Will What I Want" (2014), went viral with over 10 million views, featuring Copeland dancing while a rejection letter from a ballet academy was read aloud — a letter telling a thirteen-year-old girl she had the wrong body for ballet. The ad became a cultural touchstone.
Legacy: Opening Doors
Copeland's impact extends far beyond her performances. Her bestselling memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (2014), and its young-reader adaptation, Firebird (2014), have inspired a generation of young dancers of color. She has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People (2015), received a Women's Sports Foundation award, and been appointed to the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.
In 2019, Copeland suffered a severe tibial stress fracture and underwent surgery, but she returned to the stage in 2020, performing with the same power and artistry that had made her a star. She continues to dance with ABT while also serving as a cultural ambassador for the art form.
"I had moments of doubting myself, and my mother always told me, 'You can do anything,'" Copeland has said. "I just want to be one of those people who proves that it can be done." For the thousands of young dancers of color who now see themselves reflected on the stages of the world's great ballet companies, she has done exactly that.