Whorled, On His Toes

From the slums of mumbai to American Ballet Theatre, Amiruddin Shah is tiptoeing his way to realising his dreams

- Priyanka Bhadani

It would be the first-ever stage performance of Amiruddin Shah later that evening, at the St Andrew’s Auditorium in Bandra, Mumbai. It is the annual performance of The Danceworx Performing Arts Academy, and Amir has a two-minute solo slot. We catch the 15-year-old ballerino just before his final rehearsal—he is a little anxious, but confident that his ballet performance would be top-notch.

 Right across the stage sits an aged man, in the front row, closely watching him rehearse. He looks annoyed when I approach him. He gets up, walks towards the stage and calls Amir. He whispers something to him, comes back, and takes his seat. Amir begins his performance again and ends it to the man’s applause. But he approaches Amir again, and animatedly tells him how his body movement can be bettered. He goes back and sits again. This time, he turns to me and smiles warmly, inviting me to sit next to him. As anxious as Amir, he thinks the lights on the stage can be confusing for Amir. “After all, he is performing under the lights and in front of an audience for the first time. He needs to be on stage a little more to feel at home,” says Yehuda Ma’or, 73, an American-Israeli ballet coach who took Amir under his wings almost two-and-a-half years ago.