Sierra Leone-born US ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince dies aged 29

Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the US from an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world's biggest stages, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 29.

“Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted Friday on DePrince's social media accounts.

“From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens across the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”

A cause of death was not provided.

DePrince was adopted by a US couple, and by age 17, she had been featured in a documentary film and had performed on the TV show “Dancing With the Stars”.

Her story begins in Sierra Leone, where she lost both her parents at a young age and was placed in an orphanage. In her memoir, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” she shared her journey from the orphanage to the stage. She also wrote a children's book, Ballerina Dreams.

DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder that had her labelled “the devil’s child” at the orphanage.

“I lost both my parents, so I was there (the orphanage) for about a year and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told the AP in a 2012 interview. “We were ranked as numbers and number 27 was the least favourite and that was my number, so I got the least amount of food, the least amount of clothes and whatnot.”

She added that she remembered seeing a photo of an American ballet dancer on a magazine page that had blown against the gate of the orphanage during Sierra Leone's civil war.

“All I remember is she looked really, really happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she