10/21/14 O&A Inspirational Tuesday: Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina

Inspirational-Tuesday

michaela-deprince

The extraordinary memoir of Michaela DePrince, a young dancer who escaped war-torn Sierra Leone for the rarefied heights of ballet. Michaela DePrince was known as girl Number 27 at the orphanage, where she was abandoned at a young age and tormented as a “devil child” for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. But it was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe that would help change the course of her life.

At the age of four, Michaela was adopted by an American family, who encouraged her love of dancing and enrolled her in classes. She went on to study at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre and became a member the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Now at age nineteen this dance phenom is a member of Dutch National Ballet’s junior company in Amsterdam. 

She has appeared in the ballet documentary First Position, gained national attention on Dancing with the Stars, and her story was featured on Good Morning America, and Nightline. In this engaging, moving, and unforgettable memoir, Michaela shares her dramatic journey from an orphan in West Africa to becoming one of ballet’s most exciting rising stars.

 

 

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