From War Nightmare To Ballet Stardom
逃離戰火 一圓芭蕾明星夢
By Nina Siegal

AMSTERDAM – Michaela DePrince, a 20-year-old American ballerina who joined the Dutch National Ballet’s main company in August, is in some respects the equivalent of a chorus girl in a Broadway musical. But night after night, people show up just to see her dance.
去年8月加入荷蘭國家芭蕾舞團主團的20歲美國女舞者米凱拉．德普林斯，在某些方面來說，相當於百老匯音樂劇中的合聲女孩。但一晚接著一晚，人們進場只是為了看她跳舞。

Ms. DePrince, who was an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone and became a professional ballerina against staggering odds, has become a celebrity since the publication late last year of her best-selling young-adult memoir, published in the United States as “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina” and internationally as “Hope in a Ballet Shoe.”
德普林斯是戰火蹂躪下獅子山國的一個孤女，克服極大逆境成為職業芭蕾舞者，去年她的暢銷輕熟女回憶錄出版後聲名大噪。美國版書名為「起飛：從戰火孤女到芭蕾舞星」，國際版則為「芭蕾鞋裡的希望」。

For the past several months, “there’s been a barrage of requests for personal appearances, interviews and talk shows,” said the company’s artistic director, Ted Brandsen. She has also been asked to be a model for fashion brands, a spokeswoman for international charitable organizations and even a cultural ambassador for the Sierra Leone embassy in the Netherlands – all of which she has turned down.
舞團藝術總監泰德．布蘭森說，幾個月來「請她親自露面、接受訪問和上談話節目的邀約不斷」。她也被邀請去當時尚品牌的模特兒、國際慈善組織的發言人，甚至獅子山駐荷蘭大使館的文化大使，她都拒絕了。

This is a very different kind of life than anyone might have imagined for Ms. DePrince, born Mabinty Bangura in 1995, during an 11-year civil war that killed 50,000 people. Her father was the victim of a rebel-led massacre of workers in the diamond mines, killed when she was 3. She and her mother moved into the home of an uncle, who gave them so little food that her mother died of starvation. The uncle then deposited the child in an orphanage.
對1995年出生時名喚瑪賓蒂．班古拉的德普林斯來說，這是任何人都想像不到的全然不同的人生，她在長達11年、奪走5萬人性命的內戰期間出生。她的父親在叛軍帶頭屠殺鑽石礦場工人時遇害，當時她3歲。她和母親搬到叔叔家，叔叔給她們的食物太少，母親因而餓死。叔叔把她丟進孤兒院。

There she was nicknamed “devil’s child” and told that she was “too ugly” to be adopted because of the white patches around her neck and chest, caused by a skin condition.
她在那裡的綽號是「魔鬼的小孩」，人們告訴她，她的頸部和胸部皮膚長了白斑「太醜了」，不會有人要收養她。

But one day, the West African trade winds blew a magazine through the orphanage gates. On its cover was a ballerina in a pink tutu, her leg bent in an elegant passé. Four-year old Mabinty was immediately captivated, and vowed that she would one day become just like that girl. At the time, she didn’t even know what ballet was.
但有一天，西非的信風把一本雜誌吹進孤兒院的門。雜誌封面是一位穿粉紅色芭蕾舞裙的芭蕾舞者，她單腿彎曲，擺出優雅的「經過」姿勢。4歲的瑪賓蒂立刻被迷住了，發誓有一天要像那位女孩一樣。當時，她甚至不知道什麼是芭蕾。

This account comes from her memoir, which she wrote with her mother, Elaine DePrince, who adopted Mabinty.
這段敘述出自她和母親艾蓮．德普林斯合寫的回憶錄，艾蓮收養了瑪賓蒂。

In 2012, she was one of several ballet dancers featured in Bess Kargman’s documentary “First Position,” about contestants in the Youth America Grand Prix, a competition that landed Ms. DePrince a scholarship to American Ballet Theater School.
2012年，她是貝絲．卡爾格曼的紀錄片「芭蕾首部曲」中描述的幾位芭蕾舞者之一，片子拍的是「美國青年芭蕾舞大賽」的參賽者，這次比賽讓她拿到美國芭蕾舞團附設學校的獎學金。

She told her own story in a TEDx Amsterdam talk in November that has been viewed about 25,000 times.
她去年11月在阿姆斯特丹TED大會的談話中講述自己的故事，約被點閱了2萬5000次。

Ms. DePrince is also impressing her audiences. Within weeks of joining the main company, she had an opportunity to perform a soloist role in “Swan Lake.” By a fluke, all five of the dancers in line ahead of her to dance a pas de trois were sick or injured. Her performance “made it immediately clear to everyone that this girl was doing what she should be doing,” Mr. Brandsen said.
德普林斯也讓舞台下的觀眾印象深刻。加入荷蘭國家芭蕾舞團幾周後，她得到了在「天鵝湖」中獨舞的機會。機緣巧合下，三人舞中五位排名在她前面的舞者都或病或傷。布蘭森說，她的演出，「讓大家立刻清楚知道，這個女孩是塊跳舞的料」。

He hired Ms. DePrince to the junior company a year and a half ago after an open audition, and she quickly moved up the ranks. She is confirmed for two soloist roles in a program of four contemporary ballets.
布蘭森一年半前在一次公開徵選後聘她加入該團的青年舞團，她很快就往上爬升。她已排定在由4個當代芭蕾作品組成的劇目中擔任兩個獨舞角色。

“I’ve always wanted to prove people wrong, and that’s what drives me,” Ms. DePrince said. “I’ve been like that since Sierra Leone, when everyone said, ‘Nobody is ever going to want you; no one is ever going to adopt you.’ I’ve just kept trying to prove them wrong.”
德普林斯說：「我總想證明人們錯了，這是我的動力。我在獅子山時就是如此，當時人人都說『沒人會要你；沒人會收養你』。我一直在努力證明他們錯了。」

She says she landed at the right place with the Dutch National Ballet, where 30 nationalities are represented onstage.
她說，她進入荷蘭國家芭蕾舞團是來對了地方，上台的團員分屬30個國籍。

“Companies in Europe are going out of their way to do amazing contemporary pieces, and people take chances,” she said.
她說：「歐洲舞團全力演出了不起的當代作品，人們冒險嘗試。」

No one has been as surprised by her sudden celebrity as Ms. DePrince, who said she didn’t like talking about her childhood. Her mother receives about 40 interview requests for her every day, Ms. DePrince said, and the ballet’s media office gets many more. Now she has to balance her celebrity with a rigorous schedule of rehearsals and performances.
沒有人比德普林斯本人對她的暴紅更感意外，她表示不想談童年。德普林斯說，母親每天大約接到40個要求訪問她的邀約，舞團的媒體辦公室也接到許多。現在她必須在她的名氣和嚴格的排練和表演之間找到平衡。

“When I first started to do all this, I was like, ‘Why are you interested?’ ” she recalled.
她回憶說：「剛開始做這些事時，我這麼想：『你為什麼會有興趣？』」。

But as she has received messages from young girls and their mothers, and people in Africa, she has come to understand.
但當她接到年輕女孩和她們的母親，以及非洲人給她的訊息時，她開始明白了。

“It’s my way of reaching out to people,” she said. “It’s my way of inspiring people.”
她說：「這是我接觸人們的方式，我激勵人們的方式。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/arts/international/for-michaela-deprince-a-dream-comes-true-at-the-dutch-national-ballet.html

2015-03-31聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版左