Lack of funds force dancer Ashley Lobo to discontinue the Going Home Project that helped two underprivileged Mumbai boys study ballet in the US
Ashley Lobo (centre) teaches students at his Andheri studio. PIC/SATEJ SHINDE
Dancer Ashley Lobo, who launched the Going Home Project in 2014 to help underprivileged dancers realise their dreams, has announced his decision to shut it down due to lack of funds. The studio, over the last three years, has helped several disadvantaged students make it to prestigious dancing schools in the world. One of them is 15-year-old Amiruddin Shah, a metal welder's son who has been accepted at the esteemed American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School (ABT JKO) for a four-year training programme and will head to New York in August. Shah will be the last student from the batch that the institute will provide for. The school won't admit any more dancers.
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The Going Home project was launched with the aim of helping those who did not have any financial support to build a professional career for themselves. "We would provide them with a full-scholarship to a professional dance training programme, along with food, boarding and lodging," says Lobo. For Lobo, the project was his way of giving back to society. "Sadly, we have to discontinue the project because all our requests for funding could only generate Rs 3 lakh and I could only afford to give 15 kids scholarship for 1 year from my personal funds to make up for the huge shortfall.
I'm only a choreographer after all," he says. Out of the 15 students who've been training under 73-year-old ballet instructor Yehuda Ma'or at Lobo's Andheri base, Danceworx Performing Arts Academy, most have already received job placements. While some have become assiatant choreographers in Bollywood, others have moved abroad after receiving scholarships. Manish Chauhan, whose father works as a taxi driver, has been granted full scholarship to spend a year at the prestigious Oregon Ballet Theatre (OBT). Lobo has even absorbed Razul Singh, who was working on a construction site, as a professional contemporary dancer in Navdhara India Dance Theatre (NIDT), his contem-porary dance company.
Ashley Lobo
"We called it the Going Home Project because it was symbolic of going home to your true destiny. The project was to help Indian dancers get more representation on a global platform," he says.
As a last-ditch effort, Lobo has posted on Facebook urging people to help generate funds. "I hope the success of my students will help us restart the programme this year," he says. For now, Lobo needs R10 lakh to restart the programme.
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