“Ballet means so much to me”

Jack is a talented young dancer, who aspires to dance professionally, and an NYAT bursary is helping him achieve those dreams.

Jack has autism and dance plays to all his strengths – “there is no talking involved, and no language to process in the music he dances to. Jack loves how dancing is very sensory.”

Jack says:

“I love ballet. I love the steps, the music, the way the clothes feel on my body. I love that it is something I am good at, and I want to get better and better. I want to dance on stages all over the world when I am older.”

For Jack to progress and be ready for vocational training, Jack auditioned for opportunities with the Royal Ballet and English Youth Ballet to widen his experiences. From a low income background, these opportunities were out of reach, so his family applied to NYAT for a bursary.

Jack’s mum says:

“I have learnt [that] ballet is a highly competitive environment, and young dancers with potential but no means of support, financial or emotional, just don’t stand a chance. When the platform you start off from is disadvantaged, it feels as though you are always on the back foot trying to catch up.

This bursary has without doubt changed the course of Jack’s dance journey to date. It has enabled me to take him to auditions which would otherwise have been beyond our financial ability. This has changed him from a boy taking a Saturday dance class, to a boy training to be a ballet dancer.”

Not only a future career path for Jack, dance means so much more:

“Ballet makes me feel happy, it makes me forget that I have difficulties with things that other children don’t have. I don’t have to talk when I dance, I can use my body to tell the story. Dancing is the only place where I feel the same as everybody else; there are no differences when I dance. I never thought I would be good at anything, as words and communicating can be so tricky for me. Ballet makes me feel like anything is possible.”

The bursary is already making a difference. Jack successfully danced his way through an audition with the English Youth Ballet in London and joined the cast for their recent production. Jack says, “I felt so happy and so proud of myself, I thought I would burst from excitement”.

His mum is thrilled with Jack’s progress: “I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for Jack’s grant. It has the potential to change Jack’s life.”

Thanks to you, this small bursary will ensure that Jack and other young dancers are not stopped from fulfilling their potential due to lack of funding. Thank you!

Photo by Gez Xavier Mansfield on Unsplash