An infectious smile. Curious eyes. Decorated ears. Disheveled hair from training all morning. 17-year-old Michaela DePrince is a teenage girl who loves to dance.Except shesurvived a bloody civil war.
Her father was shot to deathbySierra Leonerebelswhile trading.Her mother starved to death one week later. This left three-year-old Michaela with her uncle who took her straight to an orphanage. She never saw him again. Even though she remembers this time vividly, how devastated she was, a magazine picture of a ballerina in her pointe shoes made her smile. This picture was her solace at the orphanage. Michaela wanted to be just like the girl in the picture. “When I first saw the picture of a ballerina she was smiling and looked so happy and I wanted to be like that, happy,” she says. After a year at the orphanage, she was adopted by an American family. Michaela thought everyonein Americawould look like the girl in the picture. She remembers with amusement how she lookedat people’s feet all the time, expecting to see pointe shoes. Michaela kept the picture in her underwear. “When I was adopted I showed it to my mother. She said if I worked really hard I could maybe be like that dancer.” Unfortunately the picture wasmistaken for trash and thrown away by the maid. Who could have known the value of a creased piece of paper in a brown paper bag?
I wanted to be like that, happy…
“Ballet is a part of me, it defines me. When I dance I feel amazing…I had no idea how hard it would be to become aclassically trained ballet dancer”, she says, “but I worked hard and kept trying. I love it so much and I hope to share my love for it with the world.””People have told me that I make them feel like I’m on stage with them. I look at the audience and smile and I try to tell them in my steps,’Come on! Dance with me.'”
Michaela is currently performing her first lead role in a full ballet, dancing the part of Gulnare in Le Corsaire. A guest artist of The South African Mzansi Ballet, she isexcited to be inSouth Africa”with all these amazing dancers and to have a lead role at such a young age.”Michaela attended theAmerican Ballet Theatre’sJacquelineKennedyOnassisSchoolandwill be joining the DanceTheatre of Harlemin August. She was recently showcased in a ballet documentaryFirst Position.It looks at young ballet dancers competing in the Youth America Grand Prix, the world’s largest ballet competition.
Even though she isnow an American citizen, she plans to open up an art school inSierra Leonein the future.”No matter what age you are…if you want to dance, you should do it. Stay focused and never give up.”
– By Tanja Bencun
