Position: Soloist

Years: 2016

Contact: Instagram, Twitter

Soloist Michaela DePrince was born in Sierra Leone and grew up in the United States. Together with her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince, she wrote the book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.

At The Rock School in Philadelphia, Michaela specialised in classical ballet. Her participation in the Youth American Grand Prix gained her a grant to study at American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, in New York. She graduated in 2012 and joined, still very young, the dance company of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. In 2013, Michaela started her career in the Netherlands as a member of the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company, which had just started up. In August 2014, she transferred to Dutch National Ballet, in the rank of élève. One year later, she was promoted to coryphée and in 2016 to grand sujet, and then to soloist at the end of the same year.

Michaela is ambassador of War Child and is also committed in other ways to give war children a future.