Ballerina focus of upcoming film

Michaela DePrince, once a war orphan, has Fayetteville ties.

Madonna is to direct a film based on the life of ballerina Michaela DePrince, who lived part of the time in Georgia.

According to The Guardian, the MGM film will be based on the book, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.”

DePrince was born in Sierra Leone. She lost both parents during the civil war there and was left at an orphanage by an uncle.

She and Elaine DePrince, who with h er husband adopted Michaela DePrince and her best friend-now-sister, Mia, from the orphanage, wrote the book.

Mia DePrince teaches voice and piano in Fayetteville and is also a songwriter, said their mother.

“It’s very exciting to have a book turned into a film” said Elaine DePrince.

She said the film will focus on Michaela DePrince’s career as a ballerina, but also on her family life.

Michaela DePrince has gone from heartbreak to dancing on the world’s stage. When she was in the orphanage, DePrince found a magazine with a photo of a ballerina “on her tippy toes.” DePrince, who was born Mabinty Ban- gura, later learned that balle- rina was Magali Messac. The two eventually met.

“Finding the magazine was the best thing that ever hap- pened to me,” said DePrince in a previous interview. “It inspired me to be something, to live for something. It gave me life again.”

DePrince, 23, was featured in the ballet documentary, “First Position,” and debuted professionally as a guest prin- cipal at the Joburg Ballet in South Africa. She performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and later joined the Dutch National Junior Company as a second-year member and apprentice to the main company. She is now a soloist with the Dutch National Ballet.

“It’s been a real roller- coaster for me,” DePrince said in an earlier interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The key is hard work, no matter what your color.”

She wants young women to push forward in the field. She said she draws inspira- tion from them as well.

SEAN MCNEIL / 2015 Michaela DePrince teaches ballerinas at Reigning Victory Dance Studio in Fayetteville, Ga., in 2015. Madonna will direct a movie about her life, based on a book.