ballerina and Beyoncé collaborator dies at 29

Michaela DePrince, a barrier-breaking ballerina who appeared on Dancing With the Stars and in Beyoncé‘s Lemonade movie, has died at age 29.

The dancer’s official Instagram web page introduced the information on Friday, and the DePrince household confirmed her loss of life in a press release on a spokesperson’s Fb web page. A reason for loss of life was not revealed.

“With ache in our hearts, we share the lack of star ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince, whose artistry touched numerous hearts and whose spirit impressed many, leaving an indelible mark on the world of ballet, and past,” a press release on DePrince’s Instagram signed by “Staff MDP “reads.

Born Mabinty Bangura in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in 1995, DePrince grew up in an orphanage, the place she was cruelly mistreated and mocked for her vitiligo. “They considered me as a satan’s baby. They instructed me day by day how I wasn’t going to get adopted as a result of no one would need a satan’s baby,” she instructed the BBC in 2012. Nonetheless, she and one other lady named Mabinty, who now goes by Mia, have been adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince in New Jersey in 1999.

After fixating on a picture of a ballerina in {a magazine}, DePrince enrolled in ballet faculty in Philadelphia and carried out on the Youth America Grand Prix. She was one among six main topics within the 2011 documentary First Place, educated on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Faculty of Ballet in New York, and appeared in an episode of Dancing With the Stars the identical yr. She went on to hitch the Dutch Nationwide Ballet’s junior firm and later grew to become second soloist for the Boston Ballet. 

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DePrince is probably most acknowledged exterior the ballet neighborhood for her look within the “Freedom” part of Beyoncé’s Lemonade movie, impressed by her 2016 album of the identical identify. “The director gave me music to hearken to, and about three minutes later, he had me dance to it,” she instructed Leisure Tonight in 2016. “I improvised, choreographing the dance on the spot. I wanted three takes. After I noticed the ultimate Lemonade video, it was enjoyable to see my identify on the credit for choreography.” She additionally starred within the 2021 ballet movie Coppelia.

DePrince chronicled her journey in her 2016 memoir, Taking Flight: From Battle Orphan to Star Ballerina, which Madonna circled as a directorial challenge in 2018. The dancer additionally wrote a youngsters’s guide titled Ballerina Goals.

“Her life was one outlined by grace, goal, and energy,” reads the assertion from Staff MDP. “Her unwavering dedication to her artwork, her humanitarian efforts, and her braveness in overcoming unimaginable challenges will perpetually encourage us. She stood as a beacon of hope for a lot of, displaying that regardless of the obstacles, magnificence and greatness can rise from the darkest of locations.”

DePrince’s sister Mia additionally paid tribute to the late dancer. “I’m actually in a state of shock and deep unhappiness. My stunning sister is now not right here,” she wrote. “From the very starting of our story again in Africa, sleeping on a shared mat within the orphanage, Michaela (Mabinty) and I used to make up our personal musical theater performs and act them out. We created our personal ballets. She would choreograph, and I used to be the composer and conductor. Once we bought adopted, our mother and father rapidly poured into our goals and arose the attractive, gracefully robust ballerina that so a lot of you knew her as right this moment.”

She continued, “She was an inspiration. Whether or not she was leaping throughout the stage or getting on a aircraft and flying to third-world international locations to offer orphans and kids with dance lessons, she was decided to overcome all her goals within the arts and dance. Michaela (Mabinty) has left her footprints within the sand and on so many phases internationally. She will likely be actually missed.”

Fellow ballerina Misty Copeland additionally posted a tribute to DePrince. “Michaela had a lot extra to offer, not simply to ballet, however to the world,” Copeland wrote. “Her legacy will proceed to encourage generations of dancers, however her absence leaves a void that will likely be felt deeply. The ballet world, and all these whose lives she touched, will miss her profoundly. She was a shiny gentle, and her impression won’t ever be forgotten.”