#michaela mabinty deprince

[anticoquette]

rest in peace to ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince 🩰

[lila-rae]

The Ballet world lost an incredible light today. And our little brown ballerinas lost one of their greatest role models and advocates. I’m thankful 8️⃣ got to meet and be inspired by you.

Rest easy beautiful 🩰

[blk-vinluxee]

[sleepynegress]

The news of Michaela DePrince's passing has me seriously shaken. She was so young and endured so much to reach the heights she had as a world-renowned superstar ballerina. If you can, take the time to hear her story in her own words in this TEDTalk from 10 years ago. She was a singular young woman. Be mindful, she is very candid about the horrors she endured as a young orphan in a war-torn country. Rest in Power, Mabinty 1995-2024 🦢💐

[msclaritea]

Michaela Mabinty DePrince was far more beautiful and graceful than the crap that Hollywood is currently pushing. I don't know why she died but if I had to guess, it may have been because of losing her parents, four years ago. It's despicable that trolls are linking her death to the covid vaccine without knowing any real information.

[davidwarner3]

Trailblazing ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince dies at 29

Read more..

Read more..

[elaine-of-shalott-blog]

A lovely tribute by Het National Ballet

It is with great sadness and dismay that we received the news that Michaela DePrince has passed away at the age of 29. To honour her memory, we will make it possible to donate to War Child, the organisation for which Michaela passionately worked as an ambassador.

Michaela grew up in war-ravaged Sierra Leone. At a young age, she lost both her parents and was admitted to an orphanage. Her skin condition vitiligo meant that people there treated her as inferior. Her nickname in the orphanage was devil’s child. A story she chronicled in her autobiography: Taking flight: From war orphan to star ballerina .

Michaela was adopted by the American DePrince family. Once in America, she followed her dream of becoming a ballet dancer, inspired by a photograph she once saw, still in Sierra Leone, of an American ballerina. This was not an easy path for Michaela; she was told several times that she did not have the right body type ánd skin colour to become a ballet dancer.

Determined, she persevered and in 2012 came to Europe at the invitation of the Hague dance company De Dutch Don't Dance Division, to dance in one of their productions. This also introduced her to the Dutch National Ballet, and in August 2013 she joined the first batch of the Junior Company. In 2014, she made the switch to the ‘main company’ of Dutch National Ballet, where she rose to the rank of soloist in the following years.  

From a young age, her extraordinary life story combined with her dance career did not go unnoticed. Among other things, she featured in the film documentary First Position, danced in a video by Beyoncé and Madonna bought the film rights to her autobiography. She also starred in the film version of Coppelia, choreographed by Ted Brandsen. 

Motivated to help children from war zones, Michaela became an ambassador for War Child in 2016 and committed to helping children in many ways. 

In 2022, she left Amsterdam to continue her dance career with the US Boston Ballet. 

Michaela is taken from us far too soon. Our thoughts are with her loved ones and family.

Link to donate: https://actie.voorwarchild.nl/teams/michaela?locale=en?utm_source=facebook-hnb&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2425-michaela%20deprince-donatie-236

[sakuraswordly]

[kimludcom]

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A post shared by Dance Institute of Washington | DIW | D.C (@danceinstituteofwashington)

[tikitania]

Dancer Michaela Deprince || Peter Leung Choreography

RIP Sweet Angel 🤍

[sujooon]

Ballerina Michaela DePrince Passes Away at 29, Leaving Behind a Legacy of Inspiration

[lifeseccess]

Trailblazing ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince dies at 29

Sierra Leone-conceived DePrince, who moved to US as a kid, hit the dance floor with Boston Expressive dance and performed with Beyoncé.... read more

[blackisdivine]

Michaela DePrince

Michaela Mabinty DePrince is a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer, currently dancing with the Boston Ballet. She rose to fame after starring in the documentary First Position in 2011.

Read more about Michaela and her inspiring story from here: https://akashictimes.co.uk/breaking-barriers-the-inspiring-story-of-a-girl-who-survived-the-brutality-of-civil-war-to-become-an-international-ballet-star/

Black beauty & Excellence.

[tllgrrl]

Rest in Paradise, Michaela DePrince.

💐🖤👑🖤💐

[lboogie1906]

Michaela Mabinty DePrince (Mabinty Bangura; January 6, 1995 – September 10, 2024) was a ballet dancer, currently dancing with the Boston Ballet. She rose to fame after starring in the documentary First Position in 2011, following her and other young ballet dancers as they prepared to compete at the Youth America Grand Prix. With her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince, she authored the book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. She danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem as the youngest dancer in the history of the company and was a former soloist with the Dutch National Ballet. She was a goodwill ambassador with the Dutch organization War Child, based in Amsterdam.

Born into a Muslim family, she grew up as an orphan in Sierra Leone after her uncle brought her to an orphanage during the civil war. Her adoptive parents were told that her father was shot and killed by the Revolutionary United Front when she was three years old and that her mother starved to death soon after.

In 1999, she and another girl were adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince, a couple from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and taken to the US.

She trained as a ballet dancer, performing at the Youth America Grand Prix among other competitions. She trained in classical ballet at The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia. Concurrent with intense ballet training, she took online classes through Keystone National High School, where she earned her high school diploma. She graduated from the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York. Her professional debut performance was in the role of Gulnare in Mzansi Productions and the South African Ballet Theatre’s premiere of Le Corsaire on July 19, 2012.

In 2015 MGM acquired the film rights to her book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. In 2018 MGM announced that Madonna will direct Taking Flight, a biopic on her life and career.

In 2021, she joined the Boston Ballet as a second soloist. She danced the leading role in Coppelia. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence