Ballet dancer’s trip to the top
He was born on a pavement – now, thanks to the love and support of four women, this young man is making his dance dream come true
WATCHING him leap into the air is a sight to behold. He soars to a seemingly impossible height, legs extended in splits, arms taut, head proud, his body poised to perfection.
At 1,6m Kristof Skhosana isn’t particularly tall for a ballet dancer but that hasn’t held him back.
“He uses absolutely every centimetre of his body,” his dance coach, Kelsey Middleton, says proudly.
And this talented Pretoria whizzkid has now danced his way to success overseas.
Last year he attended the World Lyrical Dance Federation’s workshop in Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK and the American Ballet Academy’s summer school in New York – both times on bur- saries awarded for his extraordinary skill.
Not bad for a kid who was born on a pavement in Groblersdal, Limpopo, 21 years ago.
Today, wheelie bag in tow, Kristof walks briskly towards the stage of the opera house at Cape Town’s Artscape theatre.
He’s here to compete in the sixth South African International Ballet Competition, in which 87 young dancers from all over the world compete with other dancers of their age.
The clock is ticking. Kristof has just five minutes to limber up and rehearse his routine for tonight’s final round.
On the back of his tracksuit are the words “Don’t follow me” – which aspiring young dancers would do well to ignore, considering Kristof ’s journey to success is a one-of-a-kind tale of inspiration and determination.
IT’S thanks to the love of four women that Kristof has been able to nurture his formidable talent. His grandmother Anna Skhosana, mother, Martha Skhosana, and his mom’s employers, Rina Mostert and Magriet Nolte, have all helped to make it possible for the young dancer to follow his dreams.
Thirty years ago domestic worker Martha started working for Rita (69) and Magriet (74) in their home in Garsfontein, Pretoria. After Kristof ’s birth Martha asked the women if they’d let the baby stay with her in her cottage until he was old enough to move in with Granny Anna in Stoffberg near Groblersdal.
But when the time came for him to
leave, Rita and Magriet couldn’t bear to say goodbye to the little boy who’d become so much a part of their lives.
“We cried so much and missed him so much that after a month we went to fetch him,” says Magriet, a retired researcher who worked for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
“I’m not very good with children,” she admits. “I didn’t think I was a kid person but Kristof changed our lives.”
Rina, a retired teacher and school inspector, quickly realised their young charge possessed a rare talent. He was just 18 months old when he started dancing as soon as music came on, she recalls.
When he was about seven years old “the parents” – as Kristof has dubbed his two benefactors – took him to see a performance of Cinderella at the State Theatre in Pretoria.
“He sat dead quiet, focusing on the stage. After the show, all he wanted to do was dance,” Magriet says.
MARTHA will never forget the day Kristof, the younger of her two sons, was born. It was Friday 20 December 1996 and she’d wanted to be with her mother when she gave birth so when labour pains began in the late afternoon she and a friend set off for Groblersdal – some 60km away – by car.
When Granny Anna, Martha and her pal later arrived at the doctor’s surgery the doctor wasn’t there. So they waited on the pavement for him to return.
“But by 8pm the baby had started to come,” Martha says. “There was no stopping him. Luckily I wasn’t afraid because my mother knew what to do.”
“Oh dear, it’s a boy,” Granny Anna teased. “And you wanted a girl!”
“What God gave me is right,” Martha replied. And right there on the pavement under a night sky she held her precious newborn baby for the first time.
When she returned to work in Pretoria with baby Kristof, the little boy wormed his way into Rina and Magriet’s hearts.
“He was with us from three weeks old,” Magriet says. “He wasn’t much bigger than a piece of A4 paper.”
Rina and Magriet took Kristof to baby gymnastics classes and enrolled him in kindergarten when the time came.
The two women later moved from Pretoria to Montana and bought Martha and Kristof a home in nearby Derdepoort.
When the little boy was eight he told them he couldn’t stop thinking about the Cinderella performance he’d seen the previous year and that he wanted to become a ballet dancer. “I’m going to make my own money and pay for lessons myself one day,” he told them.
Rina was so impressed by his determination she enrolled him in ballet lessons.
He was a natural – in fact, he did so well he was allowed to skip the first two grades of his ballet exams.
Kristof proved to be multitalented: he also took classes in ice-skating, singing, piano and flute and he was chosen to be a prefect at both primary and high school.
But ballet was where his heart lay and he eventually decided to focus all his attention on his dancing.
He was in Grade 11 at Wonderboom High School when he started contemporary dance, although branching out took some persuading. “I was a ballet snob at first,” he admits.
In Grade 12 he started ballet training with acclaimed teacher Elaine Stefanou.
Then after matric he started dancing with the Joburg Ballet company. That’s where he met Kelsey Middleton, who coaches contemporary dance.
“I’ve never seen so much natural talent,” she says. “It wasn’t completely polished but his legs, feet and elevation – everything was there.”
In January 2016 Kristof attended a workshop at her KMad dance company. “After that he started focusing more on contemporary dance. In 2016 and 2017 he won every competition he signed up for,” Kelsey says.
In between the dancing he also did six weeks of flight-attendant training, on the insistence of Rina and Magriet.
“It’s good to have something to fall back on, but at first I couldn’t see myself opening and closing the overhead compartments and asking ‘chicken or beef?’,” he jokes.
Kristof also appears in an advertisement for a bank and says he’d “love to become an actor and one day star in a soapie”. But dance remains his first love. “In five years I want to be a solo dancer at a company somewhere in the world. I’ll always want to be on stage.”
Back at Artscape, Kristof stretches his body from the tips of his toes to the end of his fingertips.
Then, with an explosion of energy to the beat of Boyce Avenue’s Rise, he works through the dance routine created by choreographer Wayne Bester.
His fellow participants burst into rapturous applause and he goes on to win a gold medal in the contemporary dance category.
“I can’t help but stare and clap every time he performs,” Martha says. “I’m holding thumbs he’ll win many more medals.”
‘In 2016 and 2017 he won every competition he signed up for’