collettivo culturale tuttomondo Michaela DePrince è una ballerina statunitense
Michaela DePrince (nata Mabinty Bangura, Sierra Leone 6 gennaio, 1995) è una ballerina statunitense, solista presso il Balletto Reale Danese
“Non avere mai paura di essere un papavero in un campo di giunchiglie”
Mabinty è piccola, vive in un orfanotrofio ed è per tutti la “figlia del diavolo” solo perché una malattia le macchia la pelle. Ha quattro anni appena e vive in un paese tormentato dalla guerra civile: la Sierra Leone. Eppure Mabinty ha un sogno. Vuole fare la ballerina. Ha raccolto da terra la copertina di una rivista e si è innamorata di quel tutù delicato, di quei gesti eleganti. Sembra un sogno irrealizzabile, il suo. Poi un giorno Mabinty viene adottata da una famiglia statunitense e diventa Michaela. Anche Michaela è piccola e ha la pelle macchiata. Anche Michaela ha un sogno. I suoi genitori capiscono subito che il suo è vero talento e la iscrivono a una scuola di danza. Michaela deve affrontare fatiche, delusioni e il razzismo di chi ancora pensa che il mondo non sia pronto per una danzatrice con la pelle nera._
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Michaela DePrince was born in war-torn Sierra Leone during the country’s decade-long civil war. Rebels killed her father, and shortly after her mother died of fever and starvation. Michaela had vitiligo, a disease that causes patches of skin to lose its color. In Michaela’s native land vitiligo was considered a curse of the devil. This caused her uncle to abandon her at an orphanage. There she was taunted and abused by the women who cared for the children. They called her the devil’s child.
One day Michaela found a magazine blowing in the wind. On its cover was a photograph of a beautiful ballerina en pointe. Once Michaela saw this she found hope and determination to one day become just like that ballerina. Soon after the discovery of the magazine, an American family adopted Michaela, and she became the eighth of their eleven children, nine of whom were adopted.
Michaela’s new parents recognized her talent for ballet. They enrolled her in ballet classes and supported her passion for the art. While attending the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre, Michaela worked hard to develop her skills so that she could overcome stereotypes of conventional beauty and racial barriers in the world of ballet.
After Michaela was featured in the ballet documentary, First Position, Michaela debuted professionally as a guest principal at the Joburg Ballet in South Africa and appeared on Dancing with the Stars. At the age of seventeen Michaela performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem professional company. At eighteen she joined the Dutch National Junior Company as a second-year member and apprentice to the main company. Now at the age of twenty-one, Michaela has completed her second year with the main company, and has been promoted to the rank of Grand Sujet for the Dutch National Ballet’s main company for the 2016-2017 ballet season.
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foto: Michaela DePrince
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