UB Distinguished Speakers Series – Misty Copeland

49th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event

Misty Copeland is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. In 2015, she became the first Black woman to be promoted to the position in the company’s 75-year history.

Copeland has been featured in several publications, including the cover of Time Magazine for the Time 100. She made her first awards season guest performances in 2019 at the American Music Awards and at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

Copeland started Life In Motion Productions; her first independently produced project, “Flower,” premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2023 and is an activism film using dance to help raise awareness about intergenerational equity. Copeland is the New York Times bestselling author of “Life In Motion,” “Ballerina Body,” “Black Ballerinas,” and a picture book titled “Bunheads.”

Copeland is an ambassador of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and MindLeaps, an arts education program based in Rwanda. 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.

In 2021, Copeland was the recipient of the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest honor and in 2023, she received the Trailblazer Icon Award at The Grio Awards, was named for the second time to The Root 100, and was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from New York University. In 2024, Copeland received the Innovator Award from the African American Film Critics Association.