The Daily
'The Interview': Misty Copeland Changed Ballet. Now She's Ready to Move On.
Sat, 7 Jun 2025
The American Ballet Theater’s first Black female principal dancer on everything she’s fought for and the decision to end her historic career with the company.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What significant announcement is Misty Copeland making?
Yes, it was my experience a lot when I first joined. Being the, you know, earthy character, you know, I fought so hard to be given opportunity in classical works because often the black and brown dancers were told, that's not, you know, we're using you for the more contemporary, the more modern works, but...
I definitely think that I've seen a big change at American Ballet Theatre in particular in terms of the way that they view casting. I've definitely been a voice in having these tough conversations.
I mean, I remember being in my early 20s and going into the office and speaking to my artistic director and being terrified and not knowing how to really articulate myself, but being really intentional about how I approached the conversations and
To ask for different roles.
To ask for different roles and to really express, you know, that I feel like this is happening because of X, Y, and Z. You know, I'm a Black woman. I'm the only one here. And I want to be given opportunity. And I think I'm not because I'm a Black woman. And to go in there and really be clear and be intentional, but also have grace.
Instead of going in there like, you know, ready to fight, though I think I was fighting in my own way. And so I think that there has been change made, but we still have a long way to go.
I want to go back to your specific story. You know, you grew up in rough circumstances. There was a lot of, you know, you sort of alluded to this earlier, there's a lot of instability in various ways. And then the lifeline for you was finding ballet, which in so many ways is like the exact opposite of instability. You know, it's about... Discipline and rigor and repetition and structure.
And I did wonder if, as a young person in particular, to kind of go from one extreme to the other, where was the quiet time when, like, you just figured out... who you are as a person. Do you know what I mean?
Well, first of all, I truly think that ballet was this perfect missing piece in my life. You know, it helped me to develop. So I don't, it's almost like the antithesis of what most people experience when they're in dance, where I feel like a lot of people almost lose themselves in sense of identity. Yeah. And don't mature and are socially underdeveloped and all of these things.
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Chapter 2: How did Misty Copeland's background influence her career?
And I think that, I mean, I don't want to say that, yes, like, you know, we're trying to stay away from backlash, but it's like, You lose focus on what the work really is when there's all this other outside noise around it, rather than, like I said, you know, you're putting your head down and you're doing work.
Like I'm in these communities and I'm having these conversations and I'm, you know, creating programs that will go beyond this, you know, this administration. And that to me is what's important is that we keep consistent and doing the work and
in a way that, you know, is not going to, I guess, ruffle any feathers and have focus on us where there's funding taken away, where, you know, it's really complicated.
It is complicated, yeah.
And I think that this is bigger than... the language that we're using. This is not something that has just come about post-George Floyd or because of this administration. This is work that I've been doing since I started ballet. It's work that's undeniable when you are a minority. That, you know, it just is what it is and you're doing it. So again, this isn't something new.
This isn't some trend that we're on. It's real important work that's affecting real lives every day.
And when you're in communities talking with people and sort of educating about dance, are the kinds of conversations you're having with people different recently than they were 10 years ago, 15 years ago? Are the concerns different?
Yes. Through our Be Bold program, through the Misty Copeland Foundation, we're in the Bronx and we're in Harlem. And a lot of these people with this administration and post the pandemic pulled their children out of schools for fear of a lot of things, you know, not having citizenship or whatever it is, you know, that they, the fear of ICE, you know, but this is like the one thing.
community social outlet that they have. So I guess it is different in a way that like we're having those real conversations like, am I safe to come in and take this class? But this is it. This is all I have. This is like a lifeline. And it's also a beautiful escape and it's healing. And it's just so important and necessary for our society, for our communities.
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