Misty Copeland
speaker
575 appearances
3 recordings
2 series
first heard Jun 2025
last heard 8 Nov
Misty Copeland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 2.
Appearances
I'm really looking forward to all of the projects that I have on the horizon with my production company in collaboration with some incredible other producers.
It just feels limitless right now, but I really want to stay true to myself and not just kind of be out there just to be out there, but with intention and purpose.
Thank you so much.
The address is 1800 Crescent Hollow Road.
If I'm not home from work when you get there, my nanny will be there with the boys.
The Daily · 'The Interview': Misty Copeland Changed Ballet. Now She's Ready to Move On. · 7 Jun 2025
podcast
Thank you so much for having me.
You know, I don't have a clear answer on that. It's, you know, this has been, in all honesty, I've wanted to just kind of fade away into the background, which is not really possible. I think that the legacy of what I've created in terms of the way that I'm carrying so many stories of Black dancers who have come before me, like, I can't just disappear because
I think there has to be an official closing to my time at American Ballet Theatre, this company that has meant everything to me and has given me the opportunities and the platform that I have. And so, you know, it was in 2019 that I think I was processing that opportunity. I think this is the end of this chapter.
And though I wasn't saying it out loud to the world, you know, I've already kind of moved on to that next place of what I want to be doing.
Um, it was the very first time in my career that I felt fulfillment, I think is the right word. And I feel like I got to a point where it was like, I think I've done everything I can on the stage. And I think that contributed to the way I felt when I was performing. You know, I don't think that I had the same light that I've had throughout my career in
And without knowing it, you know, the pandemic hit and I had my final performances really in classical works. And I remember one of my last performances of Swan Lake. I think it was the last performance I did of Swan Lake. It was at Wolf Trap in Virginia, the beautiful outdoor amphitheater. And it feeling like the best performance I'd ever had of Swan Lake.
And I think I had gotten to a place of... of just letting go of what the critics think. You know, even once I became a principal dancer, I was getting so much criticism about whether or not I should be in that position as a Black woman. Am I technically up for the challenge? That technicality, those words are often used with people of color.
And I remember I spent that whole year of 2019, I brought in a new teacher that was literally retraining me Because I was, like, striving to reach other people's standards of what they thought. And so that final performance, I let go, and it was an incredible last Swan Lake. I've always known that I was going to leave on my own terms.
And that I wasn't going to be, like, being pulled off by my ankles. Like, get off the stage. It's over. Yeah, the hook. I've always known that I wasn't going—that wasn't going to be my experience anymore.
I have this conversation often with my husband in that, you know, I think that I am a performer because it has given me the most beautiful escape and voice and sense of freedom coming from the background that I come from. You know, coming from being houseless for most of my upbringing, not always having, I don't know, I guess a sense of consistent like parental figures in my life.
And I never wanted to be like in the limelight. You know, I wanted to be not seen or heard. But there was something that happened when I was introduced to dance that it was the most stable thing I'd ever experienced in my life. And so, yeah, I don't think that's ever what's kind of like gotten me up every morning or gotten me on stage is this like need for like approval from the audience.
It was like I needed to dance. I didn't need all the other stuff that comes with it. And the work that I feel like I should be doing now is more behind the scenes dance.
I feel like, to me, it's never been about me, and it should never have been about me. I think it should have been about a broader understanding that people from our community, from Black and brown communities, are interested and do want to be in these spaces. They just need to see themselves. Not necessarily. They need to be introduced and feel like it's something that they're being invited into.
And so... You know, I've never felt like I've gotten to this place and I've been given this opportunity because I am the best Black dancer to ever exist. Like, that is so far from reality. I think I was the first at American Ballet Theater to be given an opportunity.
And there's not enough schools, there's not enough access to communities that wouldn't otherwise, you know, be introduced to classical dance and teachers who look like them and healthy and nurturing environments for them to train in. And that, to me, is the work that needs to be done. It's there on the ground. And then it's behind the scenes in these ballet companies. It's the board of directors.
Showing 481–500 of 575 · page 25 of 29
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