Michaela Deprince's Life Story

Michaela Deprince is a famous ballerina. Her life started out very unexpectedly. She grew up during a civil war in Sierra Leone, Africa. She showed spirit when she is dancing. Although she doesn’t develop a love for ballet until later, the thing that she shows spirit for also is her friends and family. As a result of this spirit, she was very gullible because she had something to lose during the war. Her real name was Mabinty, but was later changed to Michaela. Michaela was born with a skin condition where she has spots all over her neck and chest. She lived in the house on the right next to her uncle who lived in the house on the left. He did not treat her fairly because of these spots, and because she was one of the few women in their town

who knew how to read and write. He called her a devil child. Growing up, she lived with her mom and dad, who were the only people who were actually nice to her. Her uncle beat her and gave her little to no food. Throughout her early years, she lost nearly everyone she loved to the debils. The people invading her district, called debils, were now approaching quickly.
When Michaela was only three years old, her father was killed in the mines, due to a bombing by the debils, during the war. After that, she and her mother were forced to move to the house on the left, her uncle’s house. Not long after, her mother died from Lassa fever. With the debils near her town, Michaela’s uncle decided to take her to an orphanage where they would soon take her to the United States. At the orphanage, she was referred to as number 27. There she made a new friend who she would grow up with, her name was also Mabinty. She was number 26. While at the orphanage, she found the front of a magazine flying through the wind, she caught it and saw on the cover a picture of a ballerina. She decided from that point on, she was going to try her hardest to become a ballerina. She and her friend were both adopted by the same family and taken to the United States. Her new mother and father were very nice and treated both of them fairly. She began taking ballet classes as soon as she had gotten into the United States. She absolutely fell in love with ballet. She took every chance she got to be in professional ballets, summer intensives, and any classes she could take. She was so dedicated that she began being homeschooled to make room for dance. She competed in the YAGP (Youth American Grand Prix, a very large ballet competition) in 2007. In 2008, Michaela competed in the YAGP again. Michaela traveled the US with the Albany Berkshire Ballet when she was only twelve years old. She attended a summer intensive at the American Ballet theatre in New York as well.
One of Michaela’s struggles was of course her experiences as a child in Africa.

After moving to the United States, she had many other struggles as well. Being a black ballerina was very hard for her. She often got discriminated against in classes by not only students, but teachers as well. Once, at an audition, she was not offered a leading role because of the fact that she was black. One of her greatest struggles was definitely losing her family members and close friends as her life went on. A time that she made an effort to make a difference is when she was younger, she didn’t realize that there were people in America that were starving, so at her birthday party, she asked all of her friends to bring cans of food instead of gifts. To improve society in a positive way, she teaches classes at dance schools to show little kids that they can be whatever they want to be no matter how hard they think it may be. A revolutionary person is someone who has a major impact on society and that inspires many people. I think she is revolutionary because she is always interested in helping people in need and to help the society as much as she possibly can. Relationships can help people become revolutionary because they can push them to do better. Relationships can also introduce to the person how to give back to the

community.
Michaela always had people at some point in her life that influenced her. One of the people that influence her is her mom. Her mom shows her what to do and teaches her what not to do. Her mom always tried to help Michaela as much as she can by making costumes and supporting her in everything she does and all decisions she makes whether she agrees with them or not. Another person that influences her is one of her dance teachers, Ms. Natasha. Ms. Natasha chose Michaela’s contemporary solo for the YAGP. Ms. Natasha also showed Michaela ways to prepare for the competition. She has impacted my life in many ways. She has shown me and still does show me that you can become anything in the world from literally nothing. She still inspires me today by watching her do what she does and seeing what she has become. An experience from her life that I could apply to my own life is having a passion to dance. Michaela wants to prove everyone wrong, despite their doubts about her, so do I. If I were her, one thing I would’ve done differently is when she was told she could not do it, that she could not become a ballerina, I would’ve stood up to them and then do what she did and proved them wrong. From reading about her life, I learned the importance of family and friends as well as the fact that you can do whatever you want to do when you put your mind to it and have a passion for it.