A message that was placed on Michaela Mabinty DePrince’s Instagram account revealed that she had passed away. DePrince was a ballerina who traveled from war-torn Sierra Leone to become famous all over the world for her dancing.
…with a lengthy statement that focused on Michaela’s “grace, purpose, and strength” — noting that she put her energies into both her dance and her humanitarian work — a black and white picture of the celebrity was uploaded to the account.
Her team acknowledges that she was only living for a brief period of time; nonetheless, her legacy will continue to be carried on by all those who were fortunate enough to have known her. In the message, there was no mention of the cause of loss.
During the time when Sierra Leone was experiencing a civil war, MMD was brought to an orphanage. He was born in Sierra Leone from the beginning. Immediately after the bombing of the orphanage, she made her way to a refugee camp, where she finally became the child of a couple from New Jersey.
During her time in the United States, she was able to take advantage of a wide range of possibilities, including being the youngest member of the renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem. Subsequently, she then traveled across the ocean to become a member of the Dutch National Ballet.
Michaela made her debut in the documentary “First Position” in 2011, when she was just 16 years old. The film is about kids competing for a place at a prestigious ballet school, and Michaela participated in the film as one of the main dancers. In the year that followed, Michaela had an appearance on the show “Dancing with the Stars.”
The music video for Brandi Carlile’s song “The Joke” included Micahela in a significant part as well. In the black and white movie, Micahela was seen spinning about as Brandi Carlile dramatically shouted out the song.
Over the last several years, Michaela has been working on a book that she titled “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.” In addition, she penned a children’s book titled “Ballerina Dreams,” with the intention of motivating the future generation of dancers!