When Michaela DePrince was living in an orphanage during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the late 1990s, death was all around her: Her parents were gone, her uncle had abandoned her, and she witnessed the murder of her teacher.

Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the United States from an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has died

Michaela's sister said she is "truly in a state of shock and deep sadness" following the ballerina's "sudden" death