The Dancer Who Refused to Rent Her Gift

In 2019, Misty Copeland sat across from a reporter who asked why she had turned down a seven-figure endorsement deal from a major liquor brand. The first African American principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre paused, then said simply, "This body is my instrument. I won't lend it to something that contradicts what it was made for." Copeland had spent thirty years sculpting every muscle, every tendon, every joint for one purpose — to move audiences through the extraordinary discipline of classical ballet.…