Nine-year-old Aussie ballet prodigy scores full New York scholarship
A talented nine-year-old is heading to New York City, after scoring a full scholarship to a prestigious ballet school.
Malcolm Doyle's dad Nick said he and his wife knew their son had a talent for dance from a young age, and could not be more proud of the international attention his dancing has garnered.
"He's been doing really well here in Australia and since last year, there's been a bit of a focus from overseas," Nick told Today.
"He got brought in to do an audition for Chicago's A and A Ballet, who were doing a world broadcast for auditions and from there, we just started to get a bit of interest."
"And then this year, we let him do the auditions for the Royal Ballet and he ended up in Hong Kong over Easter."
From there, Nick said the American Ballet Theatre in New York got in contact and offered Malcolm a scholarship.
Malcolm ultimately turned down the offer and signed with another NYC school, the Ellison Theatre, who offered the youngster a full ride.
The family are currently saving up to buy flights over to the US to check out the school, with Nick saying they will do anything and everything to support their son's dream.
"It's taking quite a bit of the funds out of my bank account, but the love he's got for dancing, you can't stop him and even if we wanted to, I mean we get home after he's had a full day of dance and he's still dancing around the house," Nick said.
Malcolm's dad has a performing arts background and his mum is also a classically trained ballerina and teacher, so Nick said Malcolm was either going to inherit the genes or "end up having three left feet".
"He went and saw a production by the Queensland Ballet on the weekend, which he had never seen before and he walked out with half the choreography memorised in his head and trying to reproduce it.," Nick said.
After being dubbed "Australia's own Billy Elliot", the Today hosts asked Malcom what it is he loves so much about dancing.
"It makes me feel really excited and it's so amazing for me, the feeling I get when I dance," Malcolm said.
Image credits: Today