She moved to the Dutch National Ballet company in 2013, where she is now a demi-soloist. Training at the JKO School of the American Ballet Theatre, she faced discrimination in the US classical ballet world because of her race. Since exploding into public consciousness in 2011 after being featured in acclaimed documentary First Position, she’s not only inspired dancers the world over to break the cookie-cutter mould, but emerged as an important voice for the marginalised. As such, it’s no surprise her inbox is blowing up. Alongside curvaceous African American ballet phenomenon Misty Copeland, she makes for a vital counterpoint to the sea of petite white girls with flat chests and non-existent butts. I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s really me!’”ĭePrince is the alternative icon that the classical dance world was crying out for. “But people are just surprised I actually answer. “When I first saw the messages, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry!’” DePrince giggles, bounding along the corridors of her Amsterdam ballet company on a bright summer’s day. Sitting in her apartment, the ballet dancer clicked her ‘other’ messages folder and scrolled down in disbelief as she discovered 2,000 unread messages, all from fans smitten with the Sierra Leonean virtuoso and her triumphant survival story. This spring, Michaela DePrince logged on to Facebook and found out she was famous. Taken from the autumn 2015 issue of Dazed:
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