When news broke earlier this month that ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince had passed away at age 29, the dance world reacted with shock, confusion, and profound sadness. She was so young; she had already accomplished so much in her extraordinary life, and yet her singular talent was still deepening, expanding, revealing itself. DePrince’s against-all-odds journey from an […]
After eight years captivating audiences in the Netherlands at The Dutch National Ballet, Michaela DePrince is now bringing her magnetism to Boston Ballet as a second soloist. But she’s got even bigger plans than simply blessing American audiences with her soaring jumps, expansive lines and pristine technique. As a survivor of the 1991–2002 Sierra Leone […]
Earlier this month we learned that former comp star and current UC Berkeley student Miko Fogarty will be giving a TEDx talk in March about her path from ballet to college. This news got us thinking about some of our favorite ballet TED talks from years past. Check out our top eight now! Michaela DePrince: […]
Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Michaela DePrince is all too familiar with the paradox of making an artform as difficult as ballet look effortless. It wasn’t until she received a scholarship to American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and began studying under Franco De Vita that DePrince finally began to grasp exactly what “less is […]
Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Michaela DePrince as the Black SwanOn Wednesday, Dance Theatre of Harlem returns to the New York City stage after a nine-year hiatus. Co-founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell (New York City Ballet’s first African-American dancer) and his former teacher Karel Shook, DTH broke barriers by offering black dancers careers in classical […]