Misty Copeland to Make Her U.S. Debut as Odette/Odile

You may want to sit down for this: Misty Copeland will make her U.S. debut as Odette/Odile in the Washington Ballet’s Swan Lake this April.

Alexandre Hammoudi and Misty Copeland in Swan Lake (photo by Darren Thomas)

Though she made her debut-debut in the role during American Ballet Theatre’s Australian tour this past August, she’ll finally be performing those most iconic of fouettés on her home turf. Fingers crossed that  Copeland will eventually get the chance to perform Odette/Odile with ABT here in NYC, but she’s doing it first with the Washington Ballet, and that’s huge for both her and the company. She’s been waiting for ABT to cast her in the role, and in the meantime, she took matters into her own hands. I believe that’s known as “I will what I want.”

Brooklyn Mack (photo via The Washington Post)

But wait, because it gets even more exciting. You may have heard of Brooklyn Mack— Washington Ballet’s multi-competition winning dancer, and one of the ballet world’s few African American men. He will partner Copeland in the role of Prince Siegfried, and together they will be one of the only African American couples to take on Swan Lake.

This is as epic as it is historic and we can’t wait to see rehearsal photos—not to mention the performance itself!