Misty Copeland

The worlds most famous ballerina and star of Disneys The Nutcracker and the Four Realms on success, insecurity, and finally finding her voice.

- Sophie Brickman

In many ways, Misty Copeland’s story could have been plucked from a turnof-the-century ballet: an impoverished girl sharing a room with her mother and five siblings happens, by chance, to enroll in a local ballet class, reveals herself to be a prodigy, and ends up pirouetting on the world’s biggest stages. The brand endorsements from Under Armour and Estée Lauder (she wears 4W1 Honey Bronze), the 1.5 million Instagram followers, the collaboration with Prince, the Barbie doll—maybe those could have come from a more modern libretto, but the facts remain fairy-tale-esque. Copeland has shattered just about every conception of what it means to be a ballerina, becoming the first African American female principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history in 2015 and injecting fresh energy into an art form long viewed as fusty and uptight.

“The confidence I have has been built,” she says one muggy Monday at a brasserie down the street from her New York apartment, in between rehearsals, international trips, and taping segments for Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, out next month, in which she stars as the Ballerina. “I’m often in situations where I don’t realize the magnitude of things until they’re happening,” she says. “And then I look back and think, Oh my God, how did I do that?” Over a glass of sparkling water with lemon, we ask her to zero in on a few moments that illuminate just how she did.

ELLE: Who’s the person you talk to most frequently?

MISTY COPELAND: My manager.

ELLE: Is it rare for ballet dancers to have managers?