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At just 16 years old, Leroy Mokgatle is lighting up the stage with his deftdance moves and is poised to win yet another international award
Backstage at Cape Town’s Artscape theatre, a group of teenage ballerinas from South Korea giggled shyly while asking Leroy Mokgatle if he would be in their selfies.
It was 7pm on Wednesday and about 30 minutes before Mokgatle’s solo performance at the fifth SA International Ballet Competition, the largest in Africa, with 71 dancers from as far afield as Mexico, Latvia and Cuba.
With easy charm, the 16-year-old smiled next to each ballerina in turn, before returning his attention to his feet, clad in thick slippers, which he pointed and stretched.
A rising ballet star, Mokgatle was raised by his grandmother Tryphina Mokgatle in Rustenburg after his mother passed away in 2007.
The youngster’s fate in world ballet circles was sealed earlier this month when he clinched fourth prize – plus the coveted audience choice award – at the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition in Switzerland.
His winnings included a ballet scholarship at a Prix de Lausanne partner school of his choice.
In the softly lit Artscape stage’s wings, City Press received strict instructions not to address Mokgatle in the minutes before his performance, but the youngster breached the rules and reached out a friendly hand, saying: “Hello, I’m Leroy!”
He then returned his attention to the stage, where a ballerina twirled in a pool of light before the judges.
This ballet contest sees dancers aged between 10 and 28 vie for medals and cash prizes.
The judging panel includes renowned Russian ballerina Valentina Kozlova, who defected to the US in 1979 while on tour with the Bolshoi Ballet. She later became a principal dancer with New York City Ballet.
“Yoh! The level, it’s just so high!” said Mokgatle, fingers fluttering in the direction of the stage, his voice quivering.
“You’ll be great,” smiled Angelique Harris, one of his three official ballet teachers.
Mokgatle is in his fourth and final year at the Art of Motion School in Johannesburg, where he also lives.
He trains from 6am to 6.30pm every day and has weekly fitness sessions with ex-Argentinian soccer player Nick Gindre, a former goalkeeper for Mpumalanga Black Aces.
Whispering backstage, Harris says Mokgatle’s most notable attribute is his humility.
“He’s been so humble, even after all his big achievements. He knows he has to work really hard because there is always someone better.
“For example, during dance classes most kids get bored after about an hour. Not Leroy. His classes are up to two and a half hours long, and he never stops practising.”
His grandmother told journalists that Mokgatle started to dance when he was five and that he takes after his mother, a nurse, who had been a jiver of note.
She was unable to attend the competition in Cape Town this week, but said Facebook was abuzz with friends and family celebrating his victory.
On Friday night, Mokgatle was joined in the semifinals by Faakhir Bestman (11) from Hanover Park on the Cape Flats. He is also being raised by his grandmother – Ayesha Bestman.
He trains with the Eoan Group Theatre Company and was recently awarded a scholarship to attend a two-week ballet course in New York City.
He first danced when he was only two years old. “I was standing in front of a lady’s gate in my street in Hanover Park ... She asked me whether I would like to dance. So we danced in her yard. I loved it so much. Obviously I can’t remember this, but my granny told me.”
Bestman glowed when asked about his upcoming trip to the US. “I am feeling so happy and excited. I really just need to go for it, you know.”
. Mokgatle can be seen in action in a show called Young Korean Ballet Stars at the Brooklyn Theatre in Pretoria on March 1 and 2, and at the Legend Golf and Safari Lodge near Sterkrivier, in Limpopo, in Ballet in the Bush on March 4 and 5
