Trailblazing ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince dies at 29

Born in Sierra Leone, De Prince, who moved to the U.S. as a child, danced with the Boston Ballet and performed with Beyoncé.

Michaela Mbanti de Prince, a trailblazer and inspiration to many in the world of ballet, has died at the age of 29, a spokesperson announced on her Instagram page on Friday. No cause of death has been given yet.

“Her life was defined by grace, purpose and strength,” the caption said. “Her unwavering commitment to her art, her philanthropic efforts, and her courage to overcome unimaginable challenges will forever inspire us. She was a beacon of hope for many. , shows that no matter the obstacles, beauty and greatness can rise from the darkest places.

De Prince’s family released a statement after announcing his death.

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Trailblazing ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince dies at 29

“I am truly in a state of shock and deep sadness. My beautiful sister is no longer here,” Mia De Prince wrote. “From the beginning of our story in Africa, sleeping on a shared mat in the orphanage, Michaela (Mabenti) and I created and acted in our own musical theater plays. We created our own ballets … when we adopted , our parents quickly put color to our dreams and produced the beautiful, gracefully strong ballerina that many of you know her as today. She was an inspiration.”

De Prince’s family released a statement after announcing his death.

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Born Mbanti Bangura in Sierra Leone, de Prince was sent to an orphanage at the age of three, when both his parents died in the country’s civil war. At the orphanage, she suffered abuse and malnutrition, she told The Associated Press in 2012.

“I lost both my parents, so I stayed there [at the orphanage] for about a year and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” she said at the time. “We were ranked by numbers, and number 27 was the least favorite and that was my number, so I got the least food, the least clothes and whatnot.”

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After receiving information that the orphanage would be bombed, de Prince described walking barefoot for miles to reach the refugee camp. Her mother, who adopted two other girls, including De Prince and Mia, from an orphanage after meeting her in Ghana in 1999, said Michaela was “sick and traumatized by the war”, with tonsillitis, There was fever, mononucleosis and joint swelling. De Prince was four years old when she was adopted and moved to the United States.

Her passion for ballet began as a young girl in Sierra Leone when she saw a photograph of a ballerina. But despite starting ballet training at the age of five, de Prince still faced trials. At the age of eight, she was told that America was not ready for a black girl ballerina, although she was chosen to play Mary in The Nutcracker. When she was nine, a teacher told her mother that black girls couldn’t invest.

De Prince eventually attended the Rock School for Dance Education, a prestigious and selective ballet school.

At age 17, she was featured in First Position, a documentary film that follows six dancers as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix. She received a scholarship to study at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet at the American Ballet Theatre. After graduating high school, DePrince worked at the Dance Theater of Harlem, becoming the youngest principal dancer in the theater’s history.

In 2012, she performed in her first professional full ballet in South Africa. The following year, he joined the junior company of the Dutch National Ballet.

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Audiences unfamiliar with the ballet may recognize De Prince from Beyoncé’s Lemonade, in which the then-21-year-old dances wearing an old-fashioned tutu and headpiece. In 2021, she joined Boston Ballet as Second Soloist. That year, she played the lead role in the ballet film Coppélia.

At Boston Ballet, de Prince told reporters how black dancers who came before her helped inspire her despite facing racism and xenophobia.

“I’m very lucky,” De Prince said at the time. “There was Lauren Anderson — I had someone to look up to. The Houston Ballet. Heidi Cruz, the Pennsylvania Ballet when I was younger. Misty Copeland, too. There’s not a lot of us. But what I always think about. I try to, and what my passion is, is spreading more poppies in a field of daffodils, so that there are more black and brown dancers.”

Even with his achievements, de Prince did not forget his early childhood. She became a philanthropist and expressed her desire throughout her career to open a school for dance and the arts in Sierra Leone.

De Prince told the Guardian in 2015: “It would be amazing – I’d like to use the money from this book to open a school. I’m retired from dance. The arts can change you as a person. .Dance helped me share my feelings and connect with my family – it helped me feel like I was special and not a ‘child of the devil’ that these kids wouldn’t have the same opportunities I had , and I don’t think they deserve it.

She spent much of her career advocating and promoting the inclusion of black dancers in ballet.

“There are virtually no black people in ballet, so I need to speak out,” she told the Guardian.

In lieu of flowers, De Prince’s family has asked people to donate to War Child, an organization De Prince supported.

“This work meant the world to him, and your donations will directly help other children who have grown up in an environment of armed conflict,” he wrote. “Thank you.”

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