Phillip Martin-Nelson is living proof thatt he arts really can change lives. Martin-Nelson, who was diagnosed with the most severe form of autism, now stars in a premiere ballet company and credits ballet with saving his life.
For the first three years of his life, Martin-Nelson was unable to speak, make eye contact or even allow anyone to touch him. After undergoing therapy, he was able to speak and tell his mother that he wanted to dance. She enrolled him in gymnastics and all sorts of sports, but it wasn’t until she signed him up for ballet when he was 6 that something finally clicked.
“They said I would never be able to live on my own or take care of myself,” Martin-Nelson told MyFoxNy. “[Ballet] was the first time they saw me focus, and the first time they saw me really wanting to do something and really paying attention,” he said.
Once ballet "unlocked" him, his teachers and classmates began to notice a difference, too. Dance began affecting every aspect of his life, as he even spent lunch-time inside playing music and dancing.
Today Martin-Nelson is a principal dancer at Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male ballet company. He credits his therapists and his support system to getting him to where he is today.
“Ballet is what saved my whole life. If I didn’t have ballet, if I never stepped into that first ballet class I probably would have never recovered,” he said.“I would probably still be in special schools to this day and trying just to get by."
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