“She was an inspiration,” she continued. “Whether she was leaping across the stage or getting on a plane and flying to third-world countries to provide orphans and children with dance classes, she was determined to conquer all her dreams in the arts and dance. Michaela (Mabinty) has left her footprints in the sand and on so many stages across the world. She will be truly missed. I love you, my beautiful Butterfly.”
DePrince had been very candid about the difficulties of her early life growing up in an orphanage, sharing that it was there she discovered a discarded magazine which would ultimately lead her down the path to becoming a professional ballerina.
“There was a lady on it,” she told the BBC in 2012 of the magazine, “she was on her tippy-toes, in this pink, beautiful tutu. I had never seen anything like this—a costume that stuck out with glitter on it, with just so much beauty. I could just see the beauty in that person and the hope and the love and just everything that I didn’t have.”
As she explained, she thought to herself, “‘Wow! This is what I want to be.'”
