After the tragic, untimely death of professional ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince at age 29 on September 10, the family is mourning yet another tremendous loss.
According to a Facebook post shared by Jessica Volinski, a spokesperson for the family, Elaine DePrince died on Wednesday, September 11 – just one day after the death of her adoptive daughter, Michaela.
“The last few days have been even more difficult than most people realize because the family has also been dealing with the death of Michaela’s adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince,” Volinski wrote.
She went on to clarify that Elaine passed away “during a routine procedure in preparation for a surgery” and was unaware of her daughter’s death the day before.
“As unbelievable as it may seem, the two deaths were completely unrelated. The only way we can make sense of the senseless is that Elaine, who had already lost three children many years ago, was by the grace of God spared the pain of experiencing the loss of a fourth child,” the family’s statement read.
Michaela Mabinty was adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince and brought to New Jersey at age four after she was orphaned in the West African country of Sierra Leone. The DePrinces, who were already raising 10 other children, put Michaela in dance classes, and it wasn’t long before she knew she had found her passion.
“There was so much love right away,” Michaela told Glamour in a 2015 interview. “I had never been surrounded by something like that.”
Michaela went on to study at the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet and joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2012 before becoming a principal soloist with the Boston Ballet in 2021. She found mainstream popularity after her starring role in the “Freedom” section of Beyoncé’s Lemonade film in 2016.
As of this post, there has been no information released on the cause of Michaela’s death.