Misty Copeland poses with Nelson George and Baz Luhrmann at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.
Editorial credit: Sam Aronov / Shutterstock.com
Misty Copeland was already winning awards for ballet at 15, only two years after picking up the art, and her accumulation of accolades never stopped.
In 2015 at the age of 32, she became the first black woman to be made principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, leading classical ballet company in the U.S. She had already been the only black woman in the ABT for nearly 15 years, dancing dozens of roles and becoming a favorite among casual ballet fans around the world.
In the last few years, Copeland has begun to expand into films like 2018’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, made by Disney. She’s written children’s books and joined advertising campaigns to make sure that black children aspiring to dance get the chance to see skin and bodies like their own on the stage.
Not even COVID-19 has slowed her down – in May 2020, she co-founded a fundraiser to support performance artists whose livelihoods have been damaged by pandemic shutdowns. Copeland and 32 other ballerinas from 14 countries danced The Dying Swan for a compilation video for the cause. Her fame exceeds the usual niche market of ballet – Misty Copeland is a household name.
Copeland, now nearly 38, seems like a woman who has built exactly the life she wanted. And her household is a testament to that manner of empire-building, too.
With her husband, lawyer Olu Evans, Copeland bought a Manhattan apartment in 2018, and the two have transformed it into the sort of place that art historians will cry to have preserved in another 30 years. Decorated by interior designer Brigette Romanek, the classic space is a jewel box of a setting for Copeland’s growing art collection.
“We seem to be drawn to women,” says Evans about their collection, which is almost purely by female artists of color. So far, the collection includes paintings and prints by Lorna Simpson, Deborah Roberts, Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, and several more, and will continue growing into something truly special.
Take a look inside Misty Copeland’s enchanting apartment: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/misty-copeland-at-home