Fort Lauderdale, Florida — Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who left an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone to the United States and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has died at the age of 29, her family said in a statement.
“Mikaela touched the lives of so many people around the world, including ours. She was an indelible inspiration to all who knew her and heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted to DePrince’s social media accounts on Friday. “From her childhood in war-torn Africa to stages and screens around the world, she lived out her dreams and achieved so much more.”
The cause of death has not been revealed.
DePrince was adopted by an American couple and by the age of 17 he had starred in a documentary film and appeared on the TV show Dancing with the Stars.
After graduating from high school and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre, she became a principal dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem, then moved to the Netherlands to dance with the Dutch National Ballet, before returning to the United States and joining the Boston Ballet in 2021.
“We send our love and support to the family of Mikaela Mabinty DePrince during this time of grief,” Boston Ballet said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday. “We were so blessed to have known her. She was a beautiful person and an incredible dancer. We will all miss her greatly.”
She wrote a memoir, “Soaring: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” about her journey from the orphanage to the stage, and also wrote a children’s book, “A Ballerina’s Dream.”
DePrince suffers from a skin pigmentation disorder and was known as the “devil’s child” at the orphanage.
“I was in[the orphanage]for about a year because my parents had died, and they didn’t treat me very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told The Associated Press in an interview in 2012. “We were ranked by numbers, and number 27 was the most hated, and that was my number, so I had the least food, the least clothes, everything.”
She added that she remembers seeing a photo in a magazine page of an American ballet dancer who had been blown into the gates of an orphanage during the Sierra Leone civil war.
“All I remember is she seemed really happy,” DePrince told The Associated Press, adding that she wanted “to be exactly that person.”
She said she found hope in the photo, “and I tore out the page and put it in my underwear because I had nowhere to put it,” she said.
Her family said her passion inspired young black dancers to pursue their dreams.
“We will forever miss her and her beautiful smile and we know you will too,” their statement said.
His sister, Mia Mabinty DePrince, recalled in a statement how the children slept on communal mats at the orphanage and created their own musicals and ballets.
“When we were adopted, our parents immediately committed themselves to our dreams and we grew into the beautiful, graceful and strong ballerina that many of you know today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote. “Whether she was leaping across a stage or hopping on a plane to third world countries to give dance lessons to orphans and children, she was determined to achieve all of her dreams through art and dance.”
She is survived by five sisters and two brothers. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to War Child, the organization for which DePrince served as a children’s war ambassador.
“This work means the world to her and your donations will directly help other children growing up in environments of armed conflict,” the family statement said.
