FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the United States from an orphanage in the war-torn area, 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 Friday on DePrince’s social media accounts. “From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens around the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”
No cause of death was given.
DePrince was adopted by an American couple and at age 17 she was featured in a documentary and performed on the television show “Dancing With the Stars.”
After high school and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of the American Ballet Theatre, she became a principal dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem. She then went to the Netherlands, where she danced with the Dutch 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 so fortunate to know her; she was a wonderful person, a wonderful dancer, and she will be deeply missed by all of us.”
In her memoir, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” she shared her journey from orphanage to stage. She also wrote a children’s book, Ballerina Dreams.
DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder, which led to her being labeled a “child of the devil” at the orphanage.
“I lost both parents, so I was there (in 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 whatnot.”
She said she remembered seeing a photo of an American ballet dancer on a page of a magazine that had blown against the gate of the orphanage during the civil war in Sierra Leone.
“All I remember is her looking very, very happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she “wanted to become exactly this person.”
She said she saw hope in the photo, “and I ripped the page out and put it in my underwear because I had no place to keep it,” she said.
Her passion 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 said in a statement that they slept on a shared mat at the orphanage and created their own musical plays and ballets.
“When we were adopted, our parents quickly threw themselves into our dreams and she became the beautiful, graceful, strong ballerina that many of you know her as today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote. “Whether she was leaping 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 make all of her dreams in the arts and dance a reality.”
She is survived by five sisters and two brothers. The family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to War childan organization that DePrince was involved with as a War Child ambassador.
“This work meant the world to her, and your donations will directly help other children growing up in environments of armed conflict,” the family statement said.