Michaela DePrince was a ballerina who rose from a war-torn childhood to become a rising international star of the dance world.
- Died: September 10, 2024 (Who else died on September 10?)
- Details of death: Died in New York City at the age of 29.
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Michaela DePrince’s legacy
Born Mabinty Bangura in Sierra Leone, DePrince was orphaned during the country’s brutal civil war of the 1990s and early 2000s. After her father was killed while working at the country’s diamond mines, she and her mother were taken in by an uncle. When her mother died of malnutrition and fever, DePrince was sent to an orphanage. Her skin condition of vitiligo, considered bad luck by some in Sierra Leone, made her a target there, where she was called a “devil’s child” and treated as lesser than the other children. She found hope in the form of an abandoned magazine emblazoned with a cover featuring a ballet dancer. She kept the photo and focused her dreams on it, imagining herself as a dancer en pointe.
At four years old, DePrince and her best friend from the orphanage were adopted by a couple from America, Elaine and Charles DePrince. They gave her a new name and, after their new daughter expressed her interest in dance, presented her with her first pair of ballet shoes. She quickly showed an aptitude for the craft, but DePrince also faced prejudice in a discipline not known for embracing Black performers. She found that there were few Black ballet dancers, and young Black women were steered away from the genre by teachers who assumed they wouldn’t develop the slim, lithe bodies favored by the ballet establishment.
DePrince proved those assumptions wrong. In her teens, she was already becoming a force in the dance world, earning a scholarship to study at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. She was featured in the 2011 documentary “First Position,” and in 2012, she performed on “Dancing with the Stars.” That same year, she joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem and made her professional debut in with the South African Ballet Theatre. In 2013, she joined the Dutch National Ballet, which would make Amsterdam her dance home for years.
One of DePrince’s best-known credits came while she was with the Dutch National Ballet, but it played to a very different audience. In 2016, she briefly returned to the U.S. to dance in Beyonce’s acclaimed film, “Lemonade,” appearing in its “Hope” sequence. She returned to the U.S. for good in 2021, taking a position with the Boston Ballet. DePrince’s story reached a wide audience with her 2014 memoir, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” written alongside her adoptive mother.
Notable quote
“The arts can change you as a person. Dancing helped me share my emotions and connect to my family, it helped me feel like I was special and not the ‘devil’s child.’” —from a 2015 interview for The Guardian
Tributes to Michaela DePrince
Full obituary: The New York Times
