This short film was created to honor Misty Copeland as the recipient of the 2023 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. Narrated by American Ballet Theatre’s Calvin Royal III, the film features excerpts from a 2014 PillowTalk with both Copeland and Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Virginia Johnson, moderated by Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe. Also included are performance clips from Giselle, Alexei Ratmansky’s production of The Nutcracker, and Kevin McKenzie’s staging of Swan Lake. In 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to ever hold the position of principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. She first joined ABT’s corps de ballet in 2001 and was promoted to to the rank of soloist in 2007. In 2022, she launched The Misty Copeland Foundation, with its first signature program BE BOLD, which aims to bring greater diversity, equity and inclusion to dance, especially ballet.
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