Off The Record
Dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, An Orphan From Sierra Leone Who Performed On The Biggest Stages Worldwide, Passes Away At The Age Of 29
Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince passed away, according to a statement from her family. She arrived in the US from an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone and performed on some of the biggest stages in the world. Her age was 29.
“Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted Friday on DePrince’s social media accounts. “From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens across the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”
It was not stated what caused the death.
An American couple adopted DePrince. By the time she was seventeen, she had appeared in a documentary and on “Dancing With the Stars.”
She joined Dance Theatre of Harlem as a lead dancer following her graduation from high school and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre. After that, she traveled to the Netherlands to perform with the Dutch National Ballet. In 2021, she joined the Boston Ballet after returning to the United States.
“We’re sending our love and support to the family of Michaela Mabinty DePrince at this time of loss,” the Boston Ballet wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday. “We were so fortunate to know her; she was a beautiful person, a wonderful dancer, and she will be greatly missed by us all.”
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.
Because of her skin pigmentation condition, DePrince was referred to as “the devil’s child” in 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 a 2012 interview. “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 whatnot.”
She continued by mentioning that she had seen an image of an American ballet dancer on a magazine page that had blown against the orphanage’s fence during the civil war in Sierra Leone.
“All I remember is she looked really, really happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she wished “to become this exact person.”
She said she saw hope in that photo, “and I ripped the page out and I stuck it in my underwear because I didn’t have any place to put it,” she said.
According to her relatives, her enthusiasm encouraged young Black dancers to follow their aspirations.
“We will miss her and her gorgeous smile forever, and we know you will, too,” their statement said.
In the declaration, her sister Mia Mabinty DePrince described how they used to make up their own ballets and musical theater productions while sleeping on a shared mat in the orphanage.
“When we got adopted, our parents quickly poured into our dreams and arose the beautiful, gracefully strong ballerina that so many of you knew her as today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote. “Whether she was leaping across the stage or getting on a plane and flying to third-world countries to provide orphans and children with dance classes, she was determined to conquer all her dreams in the arts and dance.”
Two brothers and five sisters survive her. The family asked that donations be made to War Child, an organization that DePrince was affiliated with as a War Child Ambassador, in place of flowers.
“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 message read.
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