I journey a lot all through the United States as a dancer, however I hardly ever get the chance to actually spend time and see it. In 2023, nevertheless, I flew to Oklahoma and visited Fairfax, a city throughout the Osage Nation. I used to be there to analysis a potential movie about Maria Tallchief, America’s first prima ballerina and the primary Native American to carry that title. She was born there and, within the Forties and ’50s, was a principal dancer within the New York City Ballet. It was darkish, humid, and pouring rain after we arrived. The land felt so open, virtually as if it might converse; it was grounding to sense such huge historical past beneath my ft. The city, which seems to be a little like an Old Hollywood film set, is house to the Tall Chief Theater, constructed by Maria’s father in 1928. Her nephew Russ Tallchief and daughter Elise Paschen took us there one morning. It was woodsy, with excessive ceilings, like a barn. He shared heaps of tales (Maria was en pointe by the age of 5!), and I might image her proper there on the stage, changing into one of the best ballerinas of all time. [Before we left,] the chief of Osage Nation invited us to the disclosing of a commemorative coin honoring Maria, which included a ceremonial dance efficiency. The drums started pounding; the rain began to beat down even tougher. There was a lot shade, all these lovely headdresses, and the male dancers had been stomping their legs to imitate the drums. I can keep in mind their pores and skin [in the rain], the way in which their muscle tissues moved and adjusted form to the music, which is one of my favourite issues about watching dance. There is gravity to being welcomed like that. It confirmed me what number of communities inside America are wealthy and deep, nonetheless inviting folks in and carrying their tales—tales which can be the material of our nation. Something modified in me throughout that journey. I started to really feel pleasure about my homeland in a new approach.”
Misty Copeland is a former principal dancer on the American Ballet Theatre, the curator of this yr’s Joyce’s Ballet Festival in New York City (August 4–16), and the writer of kids’s guide Firebird Waltz, out August 25. This article appeared within the July/August 2026 problem of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the journal here.