ASIA / PACIFIC
July 3, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
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DARING DANCE DREAM. Ballet dancer Amiruddin Shah practices before a performance in Mumbai,
India. The 15-year-old son of a welder from a Mumbai slum has won a spot at the prestigious American Ballet
Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York. Shah was doing backflips and contemporary dance
when his Israeli-American instructor first discovered his talent. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
O rig in a l
T h e
Teenage boy from Mumbai slum
dances way to N.Y. ballet school
By Manish Mehta
The Associated Press
UMBAI, India — The son of a
welder from the city’s slums had
a dream few Indians dared to
dream — to dance with the New York City
Ballet.
In a few months, that dream may be a
little bit closer as 15-year-old Amiruddin
Shah begins four years of training at the
prestigious American Ballet Theatre’s
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.
“I never thought I would become a ballet
dancer,” Shah said, though he knew from
the age of six that he loved to move with
music. “India is not on the ballet map, and
I want to take India to an even higher
level.”
Shah began studying ballet less than
three years ago when Israeli-American
instructor Yehuda Maor was invited by the
Danceworx Academy to teach in India — a
country with no special ballet academies.
Maor happened to catch Shah doing
cartwheels and backflips as part of the
Danceworx jazz and contemporary dance
program for underprivileged students.
“I had no idea about ballet,” Shah
recalled. He had been dancing freestyle
whenever he got the chance — sometimes
he was invited to weddings to perform,
sometimes he just goofed around with
friends.
Maor was impressed with how Shah
moved and asked to see the bottom of
Shah’s feet. He discovered the boy had
perfect arches for ballet and urged him to
train.
M
Within two-and-a-half years, Shah had
nailed his pointe, pirouette, and ara-
besque, “which is unheard of,” Maor said.
“I knew I had found a diamond in a pile
of rocks,” said the teacher, acknowledging
that his pupil now “needs to be challenged”
by more teachers. Maor bought Shah
ballet shoes and dance clothes and helped
him and another young dancer,
21-year-old Manish Chauhan, win
scholarships in June to New York’s Joffrey
Ballet School. But they could not secure
U.S. visas in time.
Shah and Chauhan were then offered
scholarships at the Oregon Ballet Theater
starting in December. Shah attended for
three months, while Chauhan is still
training in Portland.
Now, Shah is trying to raise funds for
four years of travel and tuition with the
American Ballet Theatre in New York.
They have enough for his first year,
beginning in August, but have set up a
website to accept donations for three more
years in the U.S.
Shah said he is eager to stay in a
dormitory and “be in a proper ballet
school.”
“I am so excited, but slightly scared, too,”
said Shah, who speaks basic English but
used Hindi in an interview with The
Associated Press. “How would I interact
with people? New York is very crowded.”
One day, he hopes to be a principal
dancer in the New York Ballet.
And eventually, he said, “I want to teach
other children who cannot afford to pay for
dance.”
After U.K. handover, Hong Kong in uneasy transition
HONG KONG (AP) —
Twenty years since the
handover of power from
Britain to China, Hong
Kong remains a place
undergoing an uneasy
transition.
At midnight on June 30,
1997, the British colonial
administration
relin-
quished control of the
Asian financial center to
Hong Kong’s new rulers,
China’s
communist
leaders.
With a new “Basic Law”
constitution and a frame-
work known as “one coun-
try, two systems,” Hong
Kongers were promised
they could keep their capi-
talist way of life, including
western-style civil liberties
and considerable autono-
my, for 50 years. However,
many residents are in-
creasingly concerned about
ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS? This June 27, 2017 photo
made with a “tilt-shift” lens shows Chinese and British flags during the
ceremony of the handover of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997, as
part of a display at an exhibit in Hong Kong. Two decades since Beijing
took control of Hong Kong, China’s rising influence — and Britain’s
waning profile — are impossible to ignore. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
mainland China’s rising
influence in Hong Kong.
They worry Beijing is
backtracking
on
its
promises, putting their
way of life under threat.
Mainland China’s grow-
ing profile amid lingering
signs of the British colonial
era are seen in photos by
Associated
Press
photographer Vincent Yu,
who used a “tilt-shift” lens
to accentuate certain ele-
ments of the image and
provide a new perspective.
Chinese symbols like
Continued on page 8
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