Ballet Dancer Michaela DePrince Dead at 29, Family Confirms in Statement

Michaela DePrince, the principal soloist at Boston Ballet, has passed away at the young age of 29.

The dancer was born in Sierra Leone in 1995 and her parents tragically died in the country’s civil war. She was adopted by an American family at the age of four. Michaela credited her years in an orphanage, where she found a magazine featuring the photo of a ballerina, as what led her on the path to becoming a professional dancer.

Michaela‘s family released a statement on Friday (September 13) to confirm the devastating loss.