Teen ballet dancer from Columbia catches world’s eye

[gtxvideo vid=”uehMyWkB” playlist=”” pid=”rkijshg2″ thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/uehMyWkB.jpg” vtitle=”Ballet prodigy”]

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — 16-year-old Nations Wilkes-Davis is not your average teenager. The Columbia resident has devoted his life thus far to ballet. Nations trains with Radenko Pavlovich, the artistic director of Columbia Classical Ballet. Pavlovich has conditioned dancers like Brooklyn Mack, who performs with The Washington Ballet. He saw something special in Nations seven years ago. “I saw this potential in him that you rarely see in dancers,” Pavlovich says. Since then, Nations has worked dilligently to improve each and every day. He trains nine hours a day up to six days a week. “It’s hard to have a new mind every day,” Nations says. Though, any fatigue hasn’t held him back. In May, Nations won a gold medal in the junior division at an international ballet competition in New York City. Last week he was in Orlando, Florida for another world competition where he earned a bronze. “Everybody wants him now, but they can’t have him,” Pavlovich says. “Not yet.” Nations just finished his junior year of high school. His mother home schools him. He says he hopes to join a prominent company as a principal after he turns 18.