Misty Copeland

Copeland auditioned for several dance programs in 1999, and each made her an offer to enroll in its summer program. Copeland performed with the ABT as part of its 1999 and 2000 Summer Intensive programs. During the summer of 1999, the topic of whether Copeland would stay if invited came up, and she responded affirmatively, although her mother insisted finishing high school was important. During that summer, she was told that she would likely be invited to stay after she graduated in 2000 and by the end of the summer she was asked to skip her senior year and join the studio company. Copeland returned to California for her senior year, even though the ABT arranged to pay for her performances, housing accommodations and academic arrangements. She studied at the Summer Intensive Program on full scholarship for both summers and was declared ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. In the 2000 Summer Intensive Program, she danced the role of Kitri in Don Quixote. Of the 150 dancers in the 2000 Summer Intensive Program, she was one of six selected to join the junior dance troupe.
She joined the ABT Studio Company in September 2000, and became a member of its Corps de ballet in 2001. She spent most of her first year sidelined due to a lumbar stress fracture. As part of the Studio Company, which is the ABT's second company, she performed a duet in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. During her second year in the corps, she endured medically induced physical maturation, professional pressure to conform to conventional ballet aesthetics and a resulting binge eating disorder. During her years in the corps, she felt the burden of her ethnicity in many ways and contemplated a variety of career moves. On August 20, 2004, while on break from ABT, she met her biological father for the first time.
Early career reviews mentioned her as more radiant than higher ranking dancers. She was named to the 2003 class of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch". As a corps dancer she had the opportunity to dance alongside her longtime idol Paloma Herrera. Starting in 2003, she began to be favorably reviewed for her roles as a member of the corps in La Bayadère and William Forsythe's workwithinwork. Recognition continued in 2004 for roles in ballets such as Raymonda and workwithinwork, and the 2004 season is regarded as her breakthrough season. In 2005, her most notable performance was in George Balanchine's Tarantella. In 2006, she received a notable mention for her role in Cinderella, and she was acknowledged for her meticulous classical performance style in Giselle. That year, she also returned to Southern California to perform at Orange County Performing Arts Center. Copeland's "old-style" performance continued to earn her praise until her promotion to soloist in 2007.