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 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 2.

Appearances

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The Daily · 'The Interview': Misty Copeland Changed Ballet. Now She's Ready to Move On. · 7 Jun 2025 podcast

You know, even for me to sit on the board of Lincoln Center is a huge deal.

I think often... choreographers or whoever it may be, don't even know what their movement might look like on different body types and different types of people. And so it's hard to say like, yes, this is okay, or it's just your taste. Like, do you really know? Do you even really know what the possibilities are of seeing your movement that could look

even more incredible or bring a whole new idea out of you and make you go even further with, you know, choreography. But, you know, Black people have been told for generations and generations, like, you all have flat feet, so you're not going to be in pointe shoes. Your butts are too big. It's like, we don't all look this way, and that's not all bad anyways.

And so, you know, I think that it's really about opening your mind to the possibilities of what can be created when you see something done. on a body in a way that you're not used to.

I don't think that my thinking has changed. I think that my whole career is proof that when you have diversity and in certain spaces or in every space, but in my instance in ballet, there's so much richness and community that people come together and want to understand each other and want to be a community together. And I feel like my career is literal proof of that.

Thinking of so many young black and brown people that didn't even know that Lincoln Center was a place they could step foot in. And when they see my poster on the front and they feel like, you know, and it opens their minds up to a whole new world. And to me, it's not just about coming to see me.

It sparks their interest to want to participate and to want to learn more about the art form and whatever may take place at Lincoln Center as well. But I think that it brings us together. I think that art is the most incredible way to build bridges and no matter what political party you're in. Yeah, I can't think of a better way to show the power of representation than through my career.

I think that we're just kind of keeping our heads down and staying the course. I don't think that it's about creating this big hoopla in public, but I think that continuing to be really intentional about the real work. And I think that that's being done through Lincoln Center.

I think there are a lot of other institutions that need to follow suit in terms of just, again, I think that it's reflected in the work that we're doing. I don't think that there's any real shifts or changes that need to be made. Just continue doing the work. It's all with the same mission in mind. And again, I don't think we have to like scream it from the rooftops.

It's like you put talent in places that it should be and you will see diversity naturally or organically happen. Yeah.

That's exactly where we need to start. Solve that problem. Done. Yeah, I think that... I think you have to take the leap and your audience is only as, you know, informed as you make them. And I think that if you just kind of keep perpetuating the same thing over and over again, that's all they're going to know. And then that becomes their taste. They're like, well, that's what I want to see.

But how do they even know if that's all they know, if that's all they see? And so I really think that it's about taking the leap and learning. And I know it's tough. I mean, we're not in a time where the arts are being supported and it's difficult financially for so many companies, especially in the States. And so I think that it's a balance.

It's a balance of some risk and then leaning on the things that people will definitely come and see.

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 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.

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.

And I feel like the opposite thing happened for me. I think that it opened me up and it helped me to understand myself more. And I was craving consistency. I was craving discipline. I mean, I would go from day to day, night to night, not knowing anything. where we were sleeping, not knowing if we were going to have food, not knowing how I was going to get to school, if I was going to school.

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