You may have read in the papers this week that another Canadian is bound for Broadway and Billy Elliot. Yup. North Bay, Ontario - a mining and logging town on the north east end of Lake Nipissing, a remote and ruggedly beautiful land of water, trees, and rocks - has sent to us the delightful smile and abundant talent that is Liam Redhead.

Oh, and perhaps I have a story of my own to tell about Liam!

As many of you know, in the twelve weeks before I came here, I had the great good-fortune to take community ballet classes at the National Ballet School of Canada. In addition to my training in the highly entertaining classes of Bob McCollum, I asked Mavis Staines, the School’s Director, if I could observe some classes with the young students. As research for my upcoming roll as a dance teacher. Yup.

In June, I watched two different classes that I thought would help me with my work: ten and eleven year old girls, and thirteen and fourteen year old boys. Watching the way these enormously skilled teachers worked with the young bodies of their students was extremely insightful. Truly. And there was this young boy... with dark curly hair, and the brightest smile (that would sneak out unbidden, even in ballet class!) who I could not take my eyes off. Oh, and the teacher was all over him: "Liam, your supporting leg! Liam! Your arms! Liam! Your tummy! Liam! What on earth did you have for breakfast this morning?!". And there's me looking at the kid going... he's perfect, isn't he? I mean, look at him - so light, so easy, so obviously skillful. And then coming to the realisation that it was for precisely that reason the teacher was on him. Be better. Work harder. Don't rely on your natural gifts. Get that technique working for you.

And at the end of class that day the students were practicing a piece they would be showing their parents for the end of year recital... and there was Liam dancing - taking his space, filling the movement with joy, direct from his heart... and oh, the charm! The unmistakeable gift of a young performer.

What did I think? Immediately? Billy Elliot should see this kid.

Skip ahead now to August in New York, and I'm in rehearsal. And the chat turns one day to up and coming Billys, since we know that Kiril will be leaving in September, and Tommy will be going to do the show in Chicago in December, and don't you know!... "Oh, there's a new boy coming from Canada... from the National Ballet School... his name is Liam..."

HAH! I can pick 'em!

(And here is where life imitates art. What did Liam's hip-hop teacher at the Barbara Treleaven School of Dance in North Bay see in him? How did she help him get to classes at the American Ballet Theatre, and become a student at the National Ballet School? Is Liam her Billy Elliot? How many students like him will cross her path in the lifetime of her teaching? Hmmmm. How lucky am I to tell this story day after day.)

And now, November, and Liam is making his way to the stage. We started rehearsing with him on deck last week (did I mention... A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOY FROM NORTH BAY ON BROADWAY!), and those rehearsals continue now until he goes in front of an audience in a few weeks. We have a tech rehearsal of Act One this week. And bit by bit he learns to move these enormous dances from solo sessions in the rehearsal hall, to the raked stage, the company, and all lighting, sound, set and costume elements. Undaunted. With his gorgeous hair, and winning smile, and this great unconscious habit of standing on pointe in his tap shoes.

Here's to Liam Redhead. God love ya, kid.