Inside the David H. Koch Theater in New York City, the lights dimmed and the orchestra began to play. A spotlight hit a staircase, and a beaming Misty Copeland stepped out on the balcony, her pale pink costume skimming her petite but muscular frame.
Gliding down the staircase in gold pointe shoes — the first time she’s worn them in the past five years — the dancer opened “A Celebration Honoring Misty Copeland” with a romantic rendition of Romeo and Juliet opposite ABT principal dancer Calvin Thomas III.
Yes, Copeland, who became the first African American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater in 2015, had returned to the stage for her final gala performance with the company. But their connection is far from over.
The prima ballerina has been accepted into the dance organization’s board of trustees.
It’s the perfect transition for the woman who broke down barriers in the world of ballet. She changed the way the world sees dancers of color—and how dancers of color see themselves. Remembering her first days of dance training, Copeland shared via a video during the performance, “Being in that studio just opened me to things I didn’t know possible. It felt like something that I had to have in my life.”
And something she has always wanted to share with others. The Misty Copeland Foundation, the organization she founded in 2022 to bring more diversity and equity to the dance world, partnered with ABT and Lincoln Center to present her historic farewell with a live, free simulcast at Alice Tully Hall. A full house of friends, fans and young students of dance watched her illuminate the stage on a larger-than-life screen.
Her foundation’s “Be Bold” program, designed for young children to discover and embrace dance, celebrates its first graduating class this year with 12 aspiring dancers who are moving on to train with prestigious institutions like the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the 92nd Street Y. The foundation has also launched “Be Bolder,” a training program for people 15 and older, tapping into Copeland’s own roots of starting dance as a teenager.
Filtering out into the night after the momentous performance, one young person slipped into a perfect arabesque in front of a step-and-repeat bearing Copeland’s dance photos. Just ten years old, she exclaimed that being there had been the chance to see “the beauty, the accomplishments and the entirety of Misty Copeland’s work.”