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Misty Copeland's Most Iconic Performances

The dancer made history this week as the first black female principal at the American Ballet Theater.

Queensland Performing Arts Centre/Darren Thomas

By William BootJul 01, 2015

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-01_vxxuvr — Misty Copeland made history this week when the 32-year-old ballerina was named the first black female principal at the American Ballet Theater (ABT). Here, Copeland dances as Gamzatti in Natalia Makarova's ballet La Bayadère.
Rosalie O'Connor

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-02_nezard — Copeland has danced many of ballet’s most iconic roles, including Swanilda in Coppélia.
Naim Chidiac/Abu Dhabi Festival

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-03_j9i8vz — Copeland—here appearing as the Flower Girl in Gaîté Parisienne—said this week, “I had moments of doubting myself, and wanting to quit, because I didn’t know that there would be a future for an African-American woman to make it to this level...At the same time, it made me so hungry to push through, to carry the next generation.”
Gene Schiavone

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-04_d9jtec — Copeland dances as Gulnare in Le Corsaire, based on the poem by Lord Byron.
Gene Schiavone

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-05_v7hw57 — Copeland in one of ballet’s most romantic roles, as Juliet in Kenneth Macmillan’s Romeo and Juliet.
Rosalie O'Connor

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-06_cgvycy — Roman Zhurbin (Head Wrangler), Misty Copeland (Cowgirl), and Craig Salstein (Champion Roper) in Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo.
Marty Sohl/American Ballet Theatre

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-07_xvcfkw — An iconic ballerina for an iconic ballet: Misty Copeland dances in Swan Lake.
Queensland Performing Arts Centre/Darren Thomas

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-08_py9ppj — Misty Copeland (Princess Florine) and Gabe Stone Shayer (Bluebird) dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty.
Gene Schiavone

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-09_fwmxkt — Misty Copeland dances the part of Odile to James Whiteside’s Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake.
Gene Schiavone

galleries/2015/07/01/misty-copeland-s-most-iconic-performances/150630-misty-copeland-10_oxyv6r — Copeland shows her stage presence in George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.
Rosalie O'Connor

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