Michaela DePrince

Michaela DePrince

Michaela DePrince performing at a 2012 photo shoot for Teen Vogue
Born Mabinty Bangura
(1995-01-06) January 6, 1995
Sierra Leone
Residence Amsterdam, Netherlands
Education Keystone National High School, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School
Occupation Ballet dancer
Years active 2012-present
Home town Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[1]
Website michaeladeprince.com
Current group Dutch National Ballet

Michaela DePrince (born Mabinty Bangura, 6 January 1995)[2] is a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer. With her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince, Michaela authored the book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.[3] 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. She currently dances for the Dutch National Ballet.

Early life

Born as Mabinty Bangura into a Muslim family,[4] 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 by rebels when she was three years old, and that her mother starved to death soon after.[5] Frequently malnourished, mistreated, and derided as a "devil's child" because of vitiligo,[6][7] a skin condition causing depigmentation, she fled to a refugee camp after her orphanage was bombed.[5]

In 1999, at age four,[8] she and another girl, Mia, were adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince, a Jewish couple from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and taken to the United States.[5][9] The DePrinces have eleven children including Michaela, nine of whom are adopted.[10]

Career

Inspired by a picture she found and kept while in Sierra Leone, DePrince trained as a ballet dancer in the U.S, performing at the Youth America Grand Prix among other competitions. She trained in classical ballet at The Rock School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Concurrent with intense ballet training, DePrince took online classes through Keystone National High School, where she earned her high school diploma.[11]

DePrince was awarded a scholarship to study at the American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet for her performance at the Youth America Grand Prix. She pursued a professional career despite encountering instances of racial discrimination: aged eight, she was told that she couldn't perform as Marie in The Nutcracker because "America's not ready for a black girl ballerina", and a year later, a teacher told her mother that black dancers weren't worth investing money in.[8]

DePrince was one of the stars of the 2011 documentary film First Position, which follows six young dancers vying for a place in an elite ballet company or school,[12] and performed on the TV show Dancing with the Stars.[13] In 2012, she graduated from the American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York, and joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she was the youngest member of the company.[5][14][15] Her professional debut performance was in the role of Gulnare in Mzansi Productions and the South African Ballet Theatre's premiere of Le Corsaire[8] on 19 July 2012.[16]

In July 2013, she joined the junior company of the Dutch National Ballet, based in Amsterdam.[17] In August 2014 she joined the Dutch National Ballet as an éleve. In 2015 she was promoted to the rank of Coryphée. She is the only dancer of African origin in the Dutch National Ballet.[18] In 2016, she performed in the "Hope" sequence of Beyoncé's Lemonade.[19]

DePrince has cited Lauren Anderson, the first black American principal ballerina, as her role model.[20] In 2015 MGM acquired the film rights to DePrince's book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.[21][22]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.filmjournal.com/content/film-review-first-position
  2. ↑ Fuhrer, Margaret (20 March 2012). "Michaela DePrince". Dance Spirit magazine. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Flight-From-Orphan-Ballerina/dp/0385755112
  4. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/jul/16/sierra-leone-ballet-mchaela-deprince
  5. 1 2 3 4 Smith, David (16 July 2012). "Sierra Leone war orphan returns to Africa en pointe for ballet debut". The Guardian (London). Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  6. ↑ "Becoming Michaela DePrince". Ayiba. April 2015.
  7. ↑ "HuffPost Teen's '18 Under 18' Of 2012! (PHOTOS)". Huffington Post. 31 December 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 Petesch, Carley (11 July 2012). "Star dancer born into war grows up to inspire". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  9. ↑ http://www.stljewishlight.com/features/arts_culture/article_3bb23754-9f7c-11e1-aa16-001a4bcf887a.html
  10. ↑ http://www.glamour.com/inspired/2015/07/world-class-ballerina-michaela-deprince
  11. ↑ http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-impressive-high-school-kids-graduating-this-year-2012-6?op=1#ixzz1zmVSMYAE
  12. ↑ Garrett, Giannella (May 2012). "Defying Gravity: Teen Ballerina Michaela DePrince". Teen Vogue. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  13. ↑ "Defying The Odds: 1 Ballerina's Incredible Journey From African Orphanage To Center Stage". Huffington Post. 8 May 2012.
  14. ↑ "Michaela DePrince: War orphan to star ballerina". Daily News (New York). 11 April 2013.
  15. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/stage/dance-blog/2013/nov/28/racism-ballet-michaela-deprince-black-dancers
  16. ↑ "From A War-Torn Childhood To Dance Stardom". Huffington Post. 11 July 2012.
  17. ↑ Harss, Marina. "Michaela DePrince – Junior Company, Dutch National Ballet". DanceTabs. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  18. ↑ Siegal, Nina (13 March 2015). "For Michaela DePrince, a Dream Comes True at the Dutch National Ballet". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ http://www.okayafrica.com/news/michaela-deprince-beyonce-lemonade-ballet-dancer/
  20. ↑ "African Voices". CNN. August 30, 2012.
  21. ↑ Maas, Jennifer (19 March 2015). "MGM acquires rights to 'Taking Flight' ballerina memoir". Entertainment Weekly.
  22. ↑ http://deadline.com/2015/03/taking-flight-mgm-alloy-michaela-deprince-1201395435/
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