Misty Copeland steps out onto a towering balcony on the stage of the David H. Koch Theater at New York City’s Lincoln Center.
As she points her toe, the star-studded audience erupts into applause. Tonight’s entrance is unique for the 43-year-old prima ballerina. After 25 years with American Ballet Theatre, the evening simultaneously marks her return to the stage after a five-year hiatus and her final performance with the company.
Copeland gracefully makes her way down a staircase as Juliet, joining her Romeo, frequent partner and fellow history-making ABT Principal Dancer Calvin Royal III, for the iconic balcony pas de deux. She spins and jumps effortlessly, defying gravity and a severe hip injury. Smiling lovingly at Royal, she leans into a penché, doing a split while standing on one leg.
For a moment, I have a flashback to the Dana Middle School auditorium, where, as a kid attending a performing arts concert to see my brother play in the band, I happened to watch a young Copeland do a similar split against the proscenium of the stage. Little did I know I was witnessing one of the first performances of a future ballerina destined for a career of firsts. Then, just as now, her artistry captivated the crowd.
The scene from Romeo and Juliet was one of several pieces selected by Copeland and ABT Artistic Director Susan Jaffe for the special farewell program during ABT’s Fall Gala on October 22. Between works spanning Copeland’s career with the company, the story of her rise from a late-blooming prodigy to ABT’s first African American female principal dancer was told through on-camera interviews and archival footage, starting with her first ballet teacher, San Pedro City Ballet Artistic Director Cindy Bradley.
By now, you’ve seen clips from Copeland’s celebrity and confetti-filled curtain call all over social media. During a 13-minute standing ovation, she was presented with flowers by a procession that included Oprah Winfrey, Debbie Allen, Twyla Tharp, ABT stars of the past and present, trailblazers Lauren Anderson and Desmond Richardson, Copeland’s husband, Olu Evans, and their 3-year-old son, Jackson. Also on stage that night was Bradley, whose touching appearance drew cheers in both the theater and a concert hall across the street, where fans watched a free live broadcast.
It was a surreal, full-circle moment for Copeland. Studying under Bradley in 1997, she starred in Allen’s production of The Chocolate Nutcracker in Los Angeles.
“It’s crazy just how much Cindy Bradley was such a part of kind of visualizing, envisioning, and shaping what my future could look like with a real, kind of tangible attainability,” Copeland says in a recent interview with San Pedro Today. “She was really intentional about reaching out to Debbie Allen when I might have been 14 years old with an understanding of what it meant for me to be connected to the Black dance community … so it’s like this contradiction in my mind where Cindy literally dreamed of this happening, but at the same time, I can’t believe this has happened.”
Bradley’s husband, Patrick, and their son, Wolf, were also in attendance for Copeland’s farewell. Having so many faces in the crowd from the start of her journey in San Pedro—including the Bradleys, her Dana Middle School drill team coach, Elizabeth Cantine, and former ballet classmate Becky Campbell—was “extremely meaningful and emotional and overwhelming.”
“This has been a collective effort to get me to this point,” she says. “They have been a part of my journey to this day, which is pretty incredible, and why I focus so much on the importance of mentorship.”
San Pedro was the first place where she felt a sense of belonging and like she was part of something bigger than herself. Looking back, she can see how the town’s multiculturalism and strong sense of community shaped her. Being by the water, she says, “is still such a big part of what peace is to me.”
“I tell people, I had a surf team at my high school. I could see Catalina Island,” she says of growing up in the seaside town.
A few days before her farewell performance, Copeland’s San Pedro High School classmates gathered at the San Pedro Elks Lodge for their 25th anniversary reunion. She says she didn’t get an invite (CC: 30th Anniversary Planning Committee). She laughs, remembering being featured in the yearbook as “Truly Talented,” posing in an arabesque with classmate Jesse Schoem.
Copeland’s toddler son has been to San Pedro—once. It was when she came out in December 2023 for a performance of the San Pedro City Ballet’s The Nutcracker, where the original cast made a surprise reunion for the production’s 30th anniversary. Coming together with Campbell, Adrienne Jaffe, Jaimie Jones, Michelle Papayans, Alexis Petru, Angeliki Ford, and Sarah Posalski felt like a family reunion.
“To see that the school and the company are still thriving and all the young talent, the fact that Cindy has kept dance and ballet alive in San Pedro, is really incredible,” Copeland says.
Hardly “retired,” she is busy continuing her mission to advance the art form of ballet and create opportunities for inclusivity. She was recently named a trustee with ABT, giving her influence behind the scenes. She also oversees her nonprofit, Misty Copeland Foundation, and runs her production company, Life in Motion Productions, with co-founder and longtime friend Leyla Fayyaz, a former ABT dancer-turned-producer.
Recently, Copeland published her latest children’s book, Bunheads, Act 2: The Dance of Courage, and danced opposite Cynthia Erivo singing “No Good Deed” in a promo for Wicked: For Good.
Copeland loves her new El Mac mural on the side of the San Pedro Ballet School on 13th Street and Pacific Avenue, but she hasn’t had a chance to see it in person yet. She hopes to spend more time back home.
“Though I’m stepping off the American Ballet Theatre stage, I’m not done performing,” she says. “I hope to be back in San Pedro dancing for that community and giving back as much as I can.”
Copeland hopes she’s made San Pedrans proud.
“I always bring them with me. I hope that they think of me as like a reflection of this incredibly diverse, open family.” spt
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