“I realized there’s an opportunity to document her journey back,” Mr. George recalled. “We had the best Hollywood version of her comeback you could possibly wish for. But the truth is, it could have ended very differently.”

A portion of Ms. Copeland’s spectacular leap to mainstream celebrity may be lodged in her character, deriving less from a conscious pursuit of fame than a driving self-doubt.

Ms. Copeland practices relentlessly — taking her place at the barre for five to seven hours each day, even on performance days. There’s no rest for a dancer, “no faking it in the ballet world,” as she said in an interview.

There is also a sort of evangelism at work. She is of mixed race, but, as Mr. George pointed out, she embraces her blackness, grasping every opportunity to speak out as a role model, getting out her message that a person’s so-called flaws, skin color among them, need be no hurdle to success.

“I will continue to talk about race,” she said. “I think that’s part of my purpose.”

While the ballet for most dancers is an all-consuming vocation, Ms. Copeland stands out for her passion to connect.

“She doesn’t live in a bubble,” Mr. McKenzie said. “Somehow she does not exclude the outside world.” On or off the stage, her credo, he said, “is ‘What can I learn today?’”