Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
On Wednesday, Misty Copeland confirmed in an Instagram post that she had hip-replacement surgery in the fall, shortly after the longtime principal dancer gave her final bow with American Ballet Theatre. After 25 years with the company, where she was crowned its first-ever Black principal ballerina, it was time to rest her aching body and tend to her chronic hip pain. “A few months ago, I stepped off the stage after my final bow with @abtofficial, closing one chapter and unknowingly preparing for the next,” she wrote. “Not too long after that, I had hip replacement surgery.”
Copeland’s post included a video of the dancer limping across the room with the help of a walker, a photo of her IV from a hospital bed, a video of her surgeon walking her through a CAT scan of her hips, and a shot of the bandage covering her incision. “These were my first few days: learning to walk again, resting, and letting my body do the work,” she continued in the caption. “Recovery isn’t glamorous, but every small step matters.”
In November, Copeland told NPR that she’d suffered a “severe” hip injury while preparing for her final performance, had been dealing with intense pain, and was “barely walking.” When she went to see her doctors, they found bone spurs in her left hip, along with a labral tear and a significant amount of cartilage loss. Against her doctor’s recommendation, she went on with the show. “Somehow, you know, muster up the strength,” she recalled.
Now, Copeland appears to be well into the healing process. “It’s all a part of getting older and being an athlete,” she told USA Today after revealing the surgery earlier this year. “It’s part of accepting the beauty of having a body and how strong and powerful it is, and what we can come back from.”
