Michaela Mabinty DePrince, an orphan who escaped war-torn Sierra Leone and made history as the youngest principal ballet dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, has died at 29.
Michaela DePrince passed away on September 10th, and her mother, Elaine DePrince, died on September 11 during a medical procedure. She was not aware of her daughter’s death, according to a Facebook post by family spokesperson Jessica Volonski.
When she was born in Sierra Leone in 1995, her name was Mabinty Bangura. The New York Times review of her Young Adult memoir, Taking Flight (which she co-authored with her mother, Elaine) says, “DePrince suffered more in her first four years than most children who will encounter this book could ever understand.” Those things include rebels killing her father when she was three and her mother dying of disease and starvation not long after. Her uncle labeled her devil-child because of her vitiligo (a skin condition in which you lose patches of color) and left her at an orphanage, and there she became orphan number 27, the least favored child.
In her memoir, DePrince recalled carrying only a page torn from a magazine when the orphans fled to Guinea.
“[A]white lady . . . wearing a very short, glittering pink skirt that stuck out all around her.” That ballerina photo, she writes, was one of the only things “that reminded me I was alive[.]”
The page was one of the first things she showed her adoptive mother. And so she began dancing as a young child.
Michaela DePrince received the Youth American Grand Prix Scholarship to train at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theater. Also, she trained at the Rock School of Dance Education in Philadelphia. Her professional journey, along with that of other aspiring ballet dancers, was chronicled in the documentary First Position. Plus, there is a Disney short called Ballerina, where DePrince shared her story—from Sierra Leone to the present.
DePrince made her professional debut as a guest principal dancer at the Joburg Ballet in South Africa. She was 17 when she performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. At 18, she joined the Dutch National Junior Company. In 2021, she joined the Boston Ballet as the second soloist.
However, DePrince also had the distinction of being recruited to dance in a Beyoncé video. According to The WSJ, “She said I looked like I was a creature from another planet,” DePrince said of an exchange with the pop star. She recalled being starstruck by the singer. “She walked up to me and said, ‘It’s such an honor to have you here.’ I was really cheesy and said, ‘The honor is mine.’ I was on cloud nine.”
Beyond dancing, DePrince was a humanitarian; she served as an ambassador for War Child, whose mission is to improve the resilience and well-being of children worldwide who live with violence and armed conflict.
During her time with us, DePrince made her mark through ballet, books, film projects, and humanitarian efforts. She also showed others with vitiligo that the condition was nothing to be ashamed of. No cause of death is known at this time.
We extend our sincere condolences to the family and the loss of Michaela and Elaine DePrince.
Check out her website’s collaboration page to learn who Michaela DePrince was.
