Misty Copeland Meets APM's Marketplace

Misty Copeland is everywhere these days.

Seriously, it seems that every time you turn around, the American Ballet Theatre soloist is being interviewed on TV or in some magazine or newspaper. She has a hefty endorsement deal with Under Armour. She’s a spokesperson for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and has done ads and commercials for everyone from Diet Dr. Pepper to Blackberry.

Now she can carve a new notch into that belt of hers: panelist on Marketplace, American Public Media’s internationally syndicated radio show about all things business-related. (Here in Greater Cincinnati, the show is heard four times every weekday on WVXU, 91.7 FM.)

Next Thursday – October 16 – host Kai Ryssdal and much of Marketplace’s Los Angeles-based on-air team will present a one-night-only stage production in New York City to celebrate the show’s 25^th anniversary.

As part of the show, they’ve convened a celebrity panel to discuss creativity and innovation. Front and center, of course, will be Copeland, along with actor Hank Azaria, author/screenwriter Delia Ephron and Kickstarter co-founder and CEO Yancey Strickler.

For those with even the slightest interest in dance history, the show’s venue – Kaufmann Concert Hall in the 92^nd Street Y – is one of the most significant in the history of American dance. The Y's Harkness Dance Center opened in 1935 with a performance that featured Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Hanya Holm.

In the course of the next 40 years, Y concerts featured a who’s who of American dance; Pearl Primus, Ted Shawn, Jerome Robbins, Talley Beatty and dozens of others. It hosted the premieres of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, Anna Sokolow’s Rooms, Donald McKayle’s Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder and Jose Limon’s Moor’s Pavane, as well as a 1954 performance by Robert Joffrey’s then-new ballet company, George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein's Dance Caravan, a rare east coast performance by Lester Horton’s California-based company and the 1952 debut of Pearl Lang’s dance group.

Misty Copeland will be in far better company than she may be aware of.

If you happen to be in New York next week, tickets are $30-$75 and available at 212-415-5500 or 92y.org.

Photo: Misty Copeland as Gamzatti in La Bayadere, by Rosalie O'Connor.