129: breakthrough ballet

This is a great story, even if you are not a dance-lover. The UK's Observer newspaper featured an article today about 19-year-old Andile Ndlovu, a South African ballet dancer who is wowing audiences with his powerful performances - and shocking (and awing) many of his friends in the process. Andile grew up in a South African township, playing soccer whenever he could. But when his mother moved to an area where there were no youth soccer teams, she enrolled him in ballet class to keep him out of mischief! Andile was very reluctant at first, but his talent was soon discovered and before long he was winning many trophies and then a place in the South African Ballet Theatre's senior corps de ballet. He has since been invited to join several US ballet theatres. His mother, who as a child longed to be a dancer herself, talks of him as a role model for black South Africans who think ballet is 'not for them' or remains out of reach. His tale is about that and more - a boy with a hidden talent, breaking through, against expectation, living his mother's dream a generation later... Full of hope on so many levels...