From Orphan to Ballerina: Michaela DePrince’s Rise Against All Odds

Michaela DePrince was born Mabinty Bangura in war-torn Sierra Leone on January 6, 1995. She lost both her parents before she was four—her father gunned down by rebels, her mother starved soon after.

What followed was a nightmare.

Placed in an orphanage, Mabinty faced hunger, neglect, and cruelty. A rare skin condition, vitiligo, marked her with pale patches on her dark skin. Superstitious caregivers called her the “devil’s child.” She was given the number 27, the lowest rank in the home—reserved for the least loved. It meant the least food, least clothing, and the least hope.

A Page in the Wind

But then came a spark.

One day, a magazine page blew across the orphanage yard. It showed a ballerina—poised on tiptoe, radiant, elegant. That image pierced the darkness.

“I remember she looked really, really happy,” Michaela recalled years later. “I wanted to be that exact person.”

She tucked the torn page into her underwear, the only safe place she had. That image became her beacon.

Fleeing the Fire

Soon, word spread that the orphanage would be bombed. Mabinty ran barefoot for miles to a refugee camp. She had nothing but that dream—and her life.

In 1999, at just four years old, she was adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince, a kind American couple from New Jersey. They renamed her Michaela.

Healing in a New World

Arriving in the U.S., Michaela was a child scarred by war—physically and emotionally. She had tonsillitis, fever, mono, and swollen joints. Worst of all, she battled constant nightmares.

“It took a long time to get it out of my memory,” she said. “But my mom helped me a lot. I wrote a lot to heal. And dance helped me most of all.”

Step by step, leap by leap, she found freedom in ballet.

Rising Star, Dancing Light

Michaela trained hard. At 17, she had already starred in a documentary, performed on Dancing With the Stars, and graduated from both high school and the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.

She was invited to join the Dance Theatre of Harlem and later performed across Europe and the U.S. Her family even moved to New York City to support her blossoming career and her sister’s dreams too.

Full Circle: Dancing for Africa

On July 19, Michaela danced her first full professional ballet—Gulnare in Le Corsaire—in South Africa. She shared the stage with the country’s two leading companies: Mzansi Productions and South African Ballet Theatre.

That performance was more than art. It was a return. A way of saying: I made it. And so can you.

“I’ve been through so much,” Michaela said. “Now I know I can help other kids—especially those in really bad situations—believe that they can make it too.”

A Dream for Sierra Leone

Michaela hasn’t forgotten where she came from. She dreams of returning to Sierra Leone to open a school of dance and the arts.

“I hope to inspire a lot of young children,” she said. “No matter what people tell you, focus on your goals. Do what you want to do. Even if that’s ballet.”

Michaela’s story reminds us: Pain doesn’t have the last word. Hope does.

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