Misty Copeland Foundation announces its new directors

Caryn Campbell has been appointed Executive Director of The Misty Copeland Foundation (MCF) and Sindy Folgar has been named Director of the MCF BE BOLD programme. The appointments, which will be effective from January 2023, were announced today by Misty Copeland, MCF Founder and President.

Caryn Campbell joins MCF from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), where she has served as Director of Patron Engagement since 2014. In her role with AAADT, she devised new approaches to increase the donor base and advance fundraising. Previously she served as Director of Development at the Storefront Academy of Harlem, raising $5 million a year. Campbell began her career working in the film industry with The De Laurentis Company and Paramount Pictures. She also worked in various production roles with Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, working on Lee's epic Malcolm X and Girl 6.

Campbell said,

I'm thrilled to become the founding Executive Director of The Misty Copeland Foundation. Not only do I share Misty's desire to provide opportunities for children in under-resourced communities through dance, working with MCF in this role will be the culmination of everything that has been important to me in my life professionally to this point – film, arts education, and fundraising. I look forward to helping change the lives of the children that we will serve.

The MCF's BE BOLD is a free afterschool dance programme, designed to serve girls and boys ages 8-10, in community-based, child-focused settings. BE BOLD is an acronym for Ballet Explorations, Ballet Offers Leadership Development, and aims to make ballet accessible, affordable, and fun for children.

Sindy Folgar comes to the MCF BE BOLD with extensive performance and teaching experience. She recently served as Senior Director of Programs and Partnerships at Dancewave in Brooklyn and is Adjunct Dance Faculty at Marymount Manhattan College. Certified in American Ballet Theatre's National Training Curriculum, Folgar has served as a ballet instructor at New York University and The Ailey School (Junior Division), Program Director at Peridance Center in New York City, and Adjunct Dance Faculty/Choreographer at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Teaching Dance in the Professions from NYU's Steinhardt School, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Ballet and Body Science and Motion from Marymount Manhattan College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Ballet from Escuela Nacional de Danza in Guatemala.

Dance and dance education have tremendously impacted my life and career while shaping my identity –  said Folgar.

I have always strived to be a positive role model to any young artist no matter their upbringing and identity. Through the innovative BE BOLD approach, I feel fortunate to contribute, in a small way, to reinventing ballet into a more equitable and accessible cultural art form.

Copeland said,

I'm proud to welcome Caryn Campbell and Sindy Folgar to The Misty Copeland Foundation. I am delighted to build this foundation alongside two phenomenal women who bring a wealth of expertise, knowledge, and experience, as well as deep care and compassion, for children and dance. I have no doubt that MCF will be in capable hands under their leadership, and I look forward to working with them.

The Ford Foundation and The Goldman Sachs Foundation's One Million Black Women Initiative are leading founding funders of the BE BOLD program.

For more information about The Misty Copeland Foundation visit
www.mistycopelandfoundation.org.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.