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In September 2006 a group of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds performed alongside the Birmingham Royal Ballet in the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
The live performance is part of the Channel 4 documentary series Ballet Changed My Life: Ballet Hoo. For the kids involved it was the culmination of 15 months of intensive hard work. But how did they get there?
 Youth at Risk participants
A radical youth training charity Youth At Risk put together a project with the help of the local authorities and in partnership with the TV company, Diverse Productions and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Called Leaps and Bounds it signed up 200 young people from Birmingham and the Black Country areas of Dudley, Wolverhampton and Sandwell. Many of them have troubled backgrounds - excluded from school, in care, or in trouble with the police.
Over several months, ballet teachers, mentors and life coaches took them through an intensive programme of personal development as well as dance and drama, to help them see the opportunities of a new way of life. For many this was a unique opportunity to expand their prospects, improve their self-esteem, and learn some valuable life skills.
 Already performing
Our programme, Saved by the Ballet, looks behind the scenes at the training techniques used by the charity, and gets an insight into the difficult process the participants had to go through to reach the final stage.
They take part in workshops which build on self discovery and self confidence, and do rigorous dance training that demands a discipline of body and mind which they haven't had previously.
"Many of their lives are extremely chaotic and dysfunctional, and in this structured environment they have blossomed” said project director Keith Horsfall.
 Getting star struck
Mentoring
At the heart of the scheme are mentors, or life coaches, who look after the welfare of the participants during the project. They are drawn from the local community and have an induction course in order to be able to provide the necessary one to one support.
When problems arise, mentors are there to talk to the participant and coach them back to the course. “I’d really like to make a difference to a young person. They have a hard time from the media, portrayed as hoodies and such, and they are not all like that,” says volunteer mentor Pauline Smith.
Find out about Youth At Risk's way of working and how they recruit volunteer mentors.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 20 November 2006 )
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