In October, ballerina Misty Copeland spun in her pointe shoes at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center in New York. It was her final performance with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Golden confetti showered down. Friends, family, and colleagues gifted her huge bouquets. The 43-year-old was ready to retire—but she still has rewarding work ahead of her.
Copeland makes dance lessons available to those who do not have easy access to them. She also encourages children through books. Her own history informs her vision.
Many professional dancers begin taking lessons as early as age three. Copeland began when she was 13. She reports on her website that at the time, she was living “in a shabby motel room, struggling with her five siblings for a place to sleep on the floor.”
She started dancing en pointe (on the tips of her toes) within three months of her first class. The prodigy began performing professionally in just over a year.
Copeland joined ABT in 2001 and became a soloist six years later. The group is one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States.
Her journey has been marked by both resounding successes and grueling challenges.
About eight months after starting with ABT, Copeland fractured a bone in her back. It took her a year to recover.
Copeland told Fox News that a doctor helped her gain weight to strengthen her bones. But the ballet community pressures dancers to be very thin. A former dancer mentored Copeland. She taught her to eat not with the goal of pleasing critics, but to pursue health and strength.
While performing the lead role in The Firebird for ABT in 2012, Copeland experienced increasing leg pain. When the season ended, she was diagnosed with six stress fractures in a leg bone. Three were almost full bone breaks. Several doctors told her she would never dance again.
She finally found a physician who performed surgery, inserted a plate in her leg, and had her back on stage in eight months.
Copeland became the first black female principal dancer in ABT’s 75-year history in 2015. That’s the highest level a dancer can attain. That same year, she made a triumphant debut as the lead in Swan Lake at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.
The ambitious athlete went on to found The Misty Copeland Foundation in 2021. It offers after-school dance classes to children and adults over age 50 in lower income areas. The website notes that Copeland believes that dance “is for every body—and every stage of life.”
Why? God comforts us in affliction and equips us to overcome obstacles so that we might hone physical gifts, flourish in community, and labor to extend His blessings to others.
Recommended Reading: To learn about Misty Copeland's life in her own words, read Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.
