Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland is a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, the first Black woman to be promoted to the position in the company’s 75-year history in 2015. She has performed some of the most iconic classical ballet roles, including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake; Juliet in Romeo & Juliet; Giselle; Manon; Coppelia; Kitri in Don Quixote; and Firebird.

Copeland has been featured on the cover of Time Magazine for the “Time 100”, has had guest performances at the 2019 American Music Awards and the 2020 Grammy Awards, has appeared on Broadway in On the Town in 2015, and in Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms in 2018. In 2021, she received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest honor. Copeland founded Life In Motion Productions and is working on her first project, Flower. She is a New York Times bestselling author of Life In Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, and Bunheads.