Misty Copeland’s Final Dance With American Ballet Theatre

Dance has been Misty Copeland’s life for 30 years, including the past 25 she spent with American Ballet Theatre. She was the kind of teenage ballerina whom adults described as a “prodigy.” When, in 2015, she became the first Black woman to be promoted to principal dancer at ABT, the media applied a new label: “trailblazer.” She knew her success was never going to be about just her. She rose to the occasion, speaking about the need for more diversity in ballet. To an outside observer, her leaps and fouettés seemed untroubled by the responsibility foisted upon her. By the end of 2019, though, she had doubts: Was performing really the best way for her to change anything? In the time the pandemic afforded her, she decided to step away from ABT. “I always thought, I don’t want to be that dance