Misty Copeland’s Ballet Send

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Sometimes a return is also a farewell. Misty Copeland, the first Black female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, may be the most famous American ballerina of her generation, but she hasn’t actually performed a ballet in five years, since before the pandemic. In the interim, she has not been idle: she published several books, had a child, and established a foundation that provides mentoring—and ballet training—to kids in under-resourced areas. Her career, and her advocacy for Black dancers, have had a measurable effect in reversing attitudes within the field. But something was still missing: the classic ballet farewell. The tinsel, t