Ballerina Michaela DePrince dies at age 29

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the United States from a war-torn orphanage Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 29.

“Michaela touched so many lives around the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to all who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted to DePrince’s social media accounts on Friday. “From her early life in war-torn Africa to stages and screens around the world, she has achieved her dreams and more.”

A cause of death was not provided.

DePrince was adopted by an American couple and by the age of 17 she had been featured in a documentary and had performed on the TV show ‘Dancing With the Stars’.

After graduating from high school and the American Ballet Theater’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, she became a principal dancer at the Dance Theater of Harlem. She then went to the Netherlands, where she danced with the National Ballet. She later returned to the US and joined the Boston Ballet in 2021.

“We send our love and support to the family of Michaela Mabinty DePrince during this time of loss,” the Boston Ballet said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday. “We were lucky to know her; she was a beautiful person, a wonderful dancer, and she will be greatly missed by all of us.”

In her memoir, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” she shared her journey from the orphanage to the stage. She also wrote a children’s book, Ballerina Dreams.

DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder that caused her to be labeled “the devil’s child” at the orphanage.

“I lost both my parents, so I was there (the orphanage) for about a year and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told the AP in an interview from 2012. “We were ranked as numbers and number 27 was the least favorite and that was my number, so I got the least amount of food, the least amount of clothes and everything.”

She said she remembered seeing a photo on a magazine page of an American ballet dancer who had been blown into the orphanage gate during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

“All I remember is that she looked very, very happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she “wanted to become exactly this person.”

She said she saw hope in that photo, “and I tore the page out and stuffed it in my underwear because I had no place to put it,” she said.

Her passion has inspired young Black dancers to pursue their dreams, her family said.

“We will miss her and her beautiful smile forever and we know you will too,” their statement read.

Her sister Mia Mabinty DePrince recalled in the statement that they slept on a shared mat at the orphanage and made up their own musical theater pieces and ballets.

“When we were adopted, our parents quickly poured into our dreams, creating the beautiful, gracefully strong ballerina that so many of you knew her as today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote. “Whether she was jumping across the stage or hopping on a plane and flying to third world countries to teach dance to orphans and children, she was determined to realize all her dreams in art and dance.”

She is survived by five sisters and two brothers. The family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made War childan organization in which DePrince was involved as an ambassador for War Child.

“This work meant the world to her, and your donations will directly help other children who grew up in an environment of armed conflict,” the family statement said.