I was born in 1995 in Sierra Leone, in the middle of a war. At the age of four I lost my parents and my uncle chose to leave me in an orphanage. Due a skin condition called vitiligo I was called the Devil’s Child, and was very unhappy.
When the wind blew a magazine with a picture of a ballet dancer onto the orphanage gates, she looked so happy that I promised myself that I’d be a ballerina one day. I was adopted soon after by my mother and father, Elaine and Charles DePrince, along with my best friend.
Once we moved to the US my mother enrolled me in ballet classes to help make my dream a reality. I am now a dancer with the Dutch National Ballet. In 2014, 15 years after my adoption, my mother and I coauthored my memoirs. The real-life characters in the book played an important role in my life. Here I acknowledge them…
Though ballet is my passion and dream, it would not be entirely fair to say that it saved me, without acknowledging the human beings who played major roles in saving my life.
Some of these people I loved; others I detested. But if it were not for them, I would not have a life, let alone be a ballerina.
First came the African mother, who loved me enough to give me her food while she was starving. Then there was my mean Uncle Abdullah. Though he hated me, he felt enough responsibility for me to leave me at an orphanage, rather than sell me to a cacao plantation as child labour, or leave me in the streets to starve.
Uncle Sulaiman, a humble but brave night watchman, who barely knew me, risked his own life and said, “Please do not kill her, she is just a poor orphan pikin,” as he lifted me out of the hands of a band of debils (rebels).
Of course, I will never forget Papa Andrew and Uncle Ali. Though they were motivated by money, and they were not the nicest men, they did lead me out of the horror of the war in Sierra Leone and into the arms of a loving mother.
My American mother and father dedicated their lives to their children. It is with their love and guidance that I adjusted to my new life in America. When my mother learned of my passion for ballet, she convinced my father to support this.
Together they poured their time, energy, and life savings into helping my dream come true. They gave me encouragement and emotional support through the difficult years of training. They did this when I was only four-years-old, and they are still the steady source of my emotional support at age 20
Last but not least among those who saved me, is the little girl who was my constant companion in the orphanage, Mabinty Suma. We were both adopted by our mother. She is now a college student, a musician, and an actor. But best of all she is my beloved sister, Mia DePrince, and she is still there for me now.
She is the first person I telephone when I have news to share. She listens to my woes, and celebrates my successes.
Ballet brings me joy! It is my dream-come-true. It is the way I express my emotions. It helped keep me out of trouble as a kid, and fulfils me as an adult. It is the source of my success.
But to say that it has saved me is not true, because I needed to be saved long before I arrived at my first ballet class. I want to share this so that other young people will appreciate those in their lives, good and bad, who have prodded them onward and upward toward their goals.
For as John Donne, the English poet once wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself…” In other words, you can’t make it alone in life. I certainly didn’t.
- Author’s note: the names I used in this article are the same names that I used in the book. They are not the real names of people. I changed the names of these people to protect their privacy and because I couldn’t locate them to get permission.
Michaela and Elaine DePrince’s book Hope in a Ballet Shoe is available at the Guardian bookshop.
