taking flight from war orphan to star ballerina

Despite the fact that she misses her family in the United States, Michaela will be returning to the Dutch National Ballet’s main company for the 2014-2015 ballet season.īesides dancing, Michaela loves reaching out to disadvantaged young people, with whom she shares her message of hard work, perseverance, hope, and striving for a dream. Afterwards she danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem professional company for one year before joining the Dutch National Junior Company as a second-year member and apprentice to the main company. While attending the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre, Michaela worked hard to develop her skills so that she could overcome stereotypes of conventional beauty and racial barriers in the world of ballet.Īfter she was featured in the ballet documentary, First Position, Michaela debuted professionally as a guest principal at the Joburg Ballet in South Africa. There she became the eighth of their eleven children, nine of whom were adopted. Soon after the discovery of the ballerina, Michaela was adopted by an American family that encouraged her to pursue her passion for ballet. Once she saw this, Michaela became determined to be just like that ballerina. On its cover was a photograph of a beautiful ballerina en pointe. While there Michaela found a magazine stuck to the orphanage gate. There she was taunted and abused by the women who cared for the children because she had a skin condition called vitiligo, which made her appear spotted. After rebels killed her father, and her mother died, her uncle left her at an orphanage.

Michaela DePrince was born in war-torn Sierra Leone during the decade long civil war that took place there. In this engaging, moving, and unforgettable memoir, Michaela shares her dramatic journey from an orphan in West Africa to becoming one of ballet's most exciting rising stars. She has appeared in the ballet documentary 'First Position,' as well as on 'Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America,' and 'Nightline.'

She went on to study at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre and is currently a member of the Dutch National Ballet’s junior company. But it was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe that would help change the course of her life.Īt the age of four, Michaela was adopted by an American family, who encouraged her love of dancing and enrolled her in classes. Michaela DePrince was known as girl Number 27 at the orphanage, where she was abandoned at a young age and tormented as a 'devil child' for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. The extraordinary memoir of Michaela DePrince, a young dancer who escaped war-torn Sierra Leone for the rarefied heights of American ballet.

Taking flight from war orphan to star ballerina