Misty Copeland bids farewell to performing

[Tanuki]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/style/misty-copeland-retirement-cec
..."Copeland, who last performed for the company five years ago, will be honored in a final star-studded Fall Gala on Wednesday, featuring tributes from Oprah Winfrey and Debbie Allen. In her final appearance, Copeland will perform excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” and “Sinatra Suite,” as well as the world premiere of a pièce d’occasion choreographed by Kyle Abraham.

“Although I’ll be saying farewell to the stage, I’ll always be committed to opening doors, creating space, and making ballet a place where everyone belongs,” she wrote in a public Instagram post ahead of her performance.

For those unable to afford the $5,000 gala tickets, the ABT is offering hundreds of free tickets to a live simulcast at Alice Tully Hall, just a block away from the event.
...

In an genre where uniformity is prized, Copeland — once called the “Jackie Robinson of ballet” — has spoken about the difficulties she faced as a Black woman in ballet. There were times she wasn’t cast in roles out of concerns she would ruin the piece’s aesthetic, or was told she should lighten her skin. For the first decade of her career, Copeland told CNN last year, she was the only Black dancer out of about 100 in the company."...(more)