Misty Copeland Will Curate The Joyce's Ballet Festival
The festival will feature dancers from American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem.
The Joyce Theater Foundation is partnering with guest curator, ballerina Misty Copeland, in bringing the height of summer to a crescendo with The Joyce Ballet Festival 2026, a two-week celebration of ballet's past, present, and future, August 4–16, in The Joyce's Tino & Rajika Puri Auditorium.
A defining figure in ballet and the first Black woman to be promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, Copeland curates this year's festival at a pivotal moment in her career, following her historic 25-year tenure with the company, marking the close of a groundbreaking chapter that reshaped the cultural landscape of ballet.
A cultural force whose influence extends far beyond the stage, Misty Copeland has redefined who ballet is for and what it can be, expanding its reach to new audiences while challenging long-standing conventions within the field. Her guest curatorship for this year's Joyce Theater Ballet Festival brings together a dynamic international roster of dancers and choreographers from leading companies including American Ballet Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Houston Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Paris Opera Ballet. Featured artists include Madison Brown, Guillaume Diop, Joe Gonzales, Babatunji Johnson, Sae Eun Park, Taylor Stanley, April Watson, and Harper Watters, among others, spanning generations, styles, and global perspectives.
The Festival showcases a compelling mix of contemporary innovation, classical repertory, and new commissions, highlighting the breadth and vitality of ballet today. Works include choreography by Kyle Abraham, José Limón, Andrea Miller, Rudolf Nureyev,Dwight Rhoden, Ingrid Silva, Stanton Welch, and James Whiteside, alongside iconic pas de deux and newly commissioned works by Aleisha Walker and Ilo Elder. Additional programming and casting to be announced..
Across two weeks, Copeland shapes a vivid and forward-looking portrait of ballet today, placing celebrated works in conversation with bold new voices and ideas. The result is a festival that not only honors the art form's history, but actively propels it into the future.
Whether audiences attend once or return throughout the engagement, The Joyce Ballet Festival 2026 promises an exhilarating convergence of artistry at the highest level, guided by one of ballet's most influential voices at a defining moment in her career.
ABOUT Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland is a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, and in 2015, she became the first Black woman to be promoted to the position in the company's seventy-five-year history. Copeland first joined ABT's Studio Company in September 2000, joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001, and in August 2007, became the company's second African American female Soloist and the first in two decades. 25 years later, Copeland officially retired from the American Ballet Theatre with her final performance on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. She is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Life in Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, The Wind at My Back, and the picture books Bunheads,Bunheads, Act 2: The Dance of Courage, and Firebird, with her next book, Firebird Waltz, set to be released on Tuesday, August 25th. 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. Also in 2022, Copeland created her production company Life in Motion Productions and produced her short film Flower, telling a powerful story through dance and movement to highlight intergenerational equity in the community of Oakland, California. Flower premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023. Copeland has been named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and was named one of Glamour's Women of the Year. Most recently, she performed “I Lied to You” at the 2026 Academy Awards with the cast of Sinners, a Best Original Song nominee.
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