move to the next stage<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nShe added: \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve become the person that I am today, and have all the opportunities I have today, because of ballet, (and) because of American Ballet Theatre. I feel like this is me saying \u2018thank you\u2019 to the company. So it\u2019s a farewell. (But) it won\u2019t be the end of me dancing. \u2026 Never say never.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evening at Lincoln Center\u2019s David H. Koch Theater will be streamed live to nearby Alice Tully Hall across the plaza, with attendance free to the public \u2014 another sign of Copeland’s unique brand of fame in the dance world. <\/p>\n
Copeland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in San Pedro, California, where she lived in near poverty and through periods of homelessness as her single mother struggled to support her and five siblings.<\/p>\n
For a future professional dancer, she came to ballet relatively late \u2014 at 13 \u2014 but soon excelled and went on to study at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre on scholarship opportunities. After a stint in the junior company, Copeland joined ABT as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001, becoming a soloist six years later. <\/p>\n
In June 2015, Copeland was promoted to principal dancer. Unlike other promotions, which are announced quietly, Copeland’s was announced at a news conference \u2014 a testament to her celebrity. Only days before, she\u2019d made a triumphant New York debut in \u201cSwan Lake\u201d in the starring role of Odette\/Odile, drawing a diverse and enthusiastic crowd to the Metropolitan Opera House.<\/p>\n
In the AP interview, Copeland acknowledged that it\u2019s striking that when she leaves ABT, there will no longer be a Black female principal dancer at the company (on the male side, acclaimed dancer Calvin Royal III was promoted to principal in 2020).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely concerning,\u201d Copeland said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve just gotten to a place in my career where there\u2019s only so much I can do on a stage. There\u2019s only so much that visual representation \u2026 can do. I feel like it\u2019s the perfect timing for me to be stepping into a new role, and hopefully still shaping and shifting the ballet world and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also noted this is an especially trying moment for anyone working in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult time,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think all we can really do is keep our heads down and keep doing the work. There\u2019s no way to stop the people that feel passionate about this work. We will continue doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.clickorlando.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 Misty Copeland hangs up her pointe shoes Wednesday, putting a final exclamation point on a trailblazing career in which she became an ambassador for diversity in the very white world of ballet \u2014 and a crossover star far beyond. Copeland will be feted in grand style as American Ballet Theatre devotes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2108316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[399162,21741,352977,21818,399160,399161,30188],"class_list":["post-2108315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-calvin-royal-iii","tag-entertainment","tag-ethnicity","tag-lifestyle","tag-misty-copeland","tag-race","tag-u-s-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Misty-Copeland-will-take-to-the-ballet-stage-one-last.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2108315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2108317,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108315\/revisions\/2108317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2108316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2108315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2108315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2108315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}