In the cramped, chaotic lanes of Vikaspuri, a working-class neighborhood in Delhi, a young boy watched a YouTube video on a cracked mobile screen. It was ballet—something he had never seen before.
He didn’t understand the music.
He didn’t know the moves.
But in that moment, Kamal Singh fell in love—with an art form he wasn’t supposed to belong to.
In a world where boys from slums became drivers, laborers, or left school to survive, Kamal danced.
Not just in defiance—but in Ziddh.
A Dream Born from a Glitchy Screen
Kamal’s father was an auto-rickshaw driver, earning just enough to feed the family.
One day, Kamal saw a clip of ballet dancer Fernando Aguilera on YouTube and felt something stir inside him—a silent pull, elegant and impossible.
Most boys his age wanted to play cricket.
Kamal wanted to pirouette.
In 2016, he visited The Danceworx Academy in Delhi, run by Aguilera himself.
I had never danced before. I didn’t even know what ballet shoes were. But I knew I belonged there.
Kamal Singh
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Against Every Odd
Ballet was foreign to Kamal in every way:
- The language was alien (French terminologies)
- The movement was refined, unlike any dance he’d seen
- The shoes cost more than his family’s monthly food budget
- And he was a boy from a conservative neighborhood doing a “girl’s dance”
He was mocked. Laughed at.
Sometimes even beaten for “embarrassing the community.”
But Kamal showed up every single day—cleaning the studio, observing others, learning by watching, until Aguilera began to mentor him personally.
The Leap Across Continents
By 2020, Aguilera believed Kamal was ready for the big stage—The English National Ballet School in London.
But ballet school wasn’t free.
So they launched a crowdfunding campaign.
People from across India and the world donated.
Celebrities like Hrithik Roshan supported him.
And Kamal became the first Indian from a low-income background to be accepted into one of the most prestigious ballet schools on Earth.
The Prince in Pointe Shoes
In London, Kamal danced through:
- Language barriers
- Cultural isolation
- Financial strain
- Grueling 10-hour days of physical exhaustion
But he didn’t give up.
He couldn’t afford to.
This wasn’t just his dream—it was a message to every underprivileged child who thought classical art wasn’t for them.
A Rising Star
Kamal Singh is now:
- A graduate of the English National Ballet School
- Performing with leading companies in Europe
- A symbol of hope for aspiring dancers across India
- Proof that class and art are not mutually exclusive
He hopes to one day open his own ballet academy in India—so no one has to beg for the chance he fought for.
I may not have had the shoes, but I had the soul to dance
Kamal Singh
The Ziddh Takeaway
Kamal Singh didn’t just break into ballet.
He broke the myth that background determines destiny.
His Ziddh was not just in dancing—but in believing in beauty, in grace, and in himself, when the world offered him nothing but obstacles.
