Photo courtesy the official Michaela DePrince website
Born in Sierra Leone, ballet dancer Michaela DePrince was orphaned at the age of three. Born Mabinty Bangura to a Muslim family, she was sent to an orphanage where the “aunties” who cared for the children believed that her skin condition, vitiligo, was a curse and called her the “devil’s child.” In 1999, DePrince was adopted by a U.S. couple. Inspired by a picture of a ballerina she saw on a magazine in Sierra Leone, DePrince trained as a ballet dancer, winning a scholarship for the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. In 2013, she joined the Dutch National Ballet.
DePrince tells her story in the book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.
KJ