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		</div><p>Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the United States from an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 29.</p>
<p>“Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted on Friday on DePrince’s social media accounts.</p>
<p>“From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens across the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”</p>
<p>A cause of death was not provided.</p>
<p>DePrince was adopted by an American couple and by age 17 she had been featured in a documentary film and had performed on the TV show Dancing With the Stars.</p>
<p>After graduating from high school and the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, she became a principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem.</p>
<p>She then went to the Netherlands, where she danced with the Dutch National Ballet. She later returned to the US and joined the Boston Ballet in 2021.</p>
<p>“We’re sending our love and support to the family of Michaela Mabinty DePrince at this time of loss,” the Boston Ballet said in a statement to the Associated Press on Saturday.</p>
<p>“We were so fortunate to know her; she was a beautiful person, a wonderful dancer, and she will be greatly missed by us all.”</p>
<p>In her memoir, Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina, she shared her journey from the orphanage to the stage. She also wrote a children’s book, Ballerina Dreams.</p>
<p>DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder that had her labelled “the devil’s child” at the orphanage.</p>
<p>“I lost both my parents, so I was there (the orphanage) for about a year and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told the AP in a 2012 interview.</p>
<p>“We were ranked as numbers and number 27 was the least favourite and that was my number, so I got the least amount of food, the least amount of clothes and whatnot.”</p>
<p>She told added that she remembered seeing a photo of an American ballet dancer on a magazine page that had blown against the gate of the orphanage during Sierra Leone’s civil war.</p>
<p>“All I remember is she looked really, really happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she wished “to become this exact person”.</p>
<p>She said she saw hope in that photo, “and I ripped the page out and I stuck it in my underwear because I didn’t have any place to put it,” she said.</p>
<p>Her passion helped inspire young black dancers to pursue their dreams, her family said.</p>
<p>“We will miss her and her gorgeous smile forever and we know you will, too,” their statement said.</p>
<p>The family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations could be made to War Child, which is an organisation that DePrince was involved with as a War Child Ambassador.</p>
<p>“This work meant the world to her, and your donations will directly help other children who grew up in an environment of armed conflict,” the family statement said.</p>
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