Welders's son from Mumbai accepted into world-leading ballet school in New York

Indian teenager Amir Shah is raising funds to come to America

In the words of his ballet teacher, Yehuda Maor, there is something very special about teenager Amir Shah.

The Mumbai youngster was pouring all his energy into dancing hip hop, when Maor, a ballet master, asked him to join his ballet class. “I don’t know how the ballet theory got into this kid's body,” said the Israeli American teacher. “And he knew everything. He learned the language very naturally.”

Two years later, the 15-year-old is at the threshold of something rather amazing. The welder’s son has received a rare invitation to study at one of the world’s leading ballet schools, located in New York - if he can raise the funds for his air travel, visa and lodgings.


 Yehuda Maor said he didn't know where the youngster got his talents (Janey Lee) 
 (YouTube)

“I sometimes think if I didn't have ballet, I would not have anything,” the teenager says in a video posted on a GoFundMe page. “I didn’t know ballet could take me so far. I didn’t realise I could become a ballet dancer.”

The teenager has received an invitation from the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York City. Among the ABT’s principal dancers are Misty Copeland, Stella Abrera and Marcello Gomes.

A spokeswoman, Kelly Ryan, told The Independent that the teenager had been accepted for the year course after auditioning by video. "We're expecting him to start this [autumn]," she said.

It was not the first time, the teenager had been invited to study in the US. Previously he received invitations from the Joffrey Ballet School in New York and the Oregon Ballet Theatre school. But he was unable to take up the offers become of visa issues.

Amir, whose story was reported by The Better India, is now trying to raise $15,000 for the trip to America. Most recently, the total stood at $2,218.

The teenager said his hero was Danil Simkin, a Russian-born principal dancer with the ABT. “I really hope I can become a principal dancer,” he said. “I will keep pushing until I get there.”