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BOUNTIFUL -- Many actors and dancers wait their whole lives for a shot at the big time. Now the spotlight will shine on an 11-year-old boy from Bountiful.
Tade Biesinger impressed audiences in Salt Lake City when he had a leading role in "The Nutcracker" with Ballet West. Now he is set to take on a starring role in a Broadway musical.
"Billy Elliot" is set in a down-and-out miners' town in England in the mid-1980s. In the film, residents of the town rally around an up and coming young dancer. Soon, Biesinger will be the star of the show. "He has a gift," Clint Biesinger said. "I know I'm his dad, but I've seen enough now to know that he has really good flexibility, he's very driven, he's extremely focused, and he has benefitted from some really good training."
That training started at Dance Impressions in Bountiful, when Tade was just 7 years old.
"He came in the summer of 2007 to a workshop and a class," dance instructor Kandee Allen said. "I taught him in this very studio, and he was just this little kid with no idea what dance had to hold."
But Allen said Tade caught on quickly to tap dancing and ballet and is a natural with learning complicated choreography. "He has such a drive. He never stops dancing, really," she said. "In my opinion, he is Billy Elliot. It's really funny, dancing is all he wants to do."
Of course, Tade's parents are especially proud he will soon be on the stage of the imperial theater in New York City. They believe his real life interest in dancing, and the support he has received, goes right along with Billy Elliot's character.
"He's definitely had a community," Clint Biesinger said. "Tade has had a community, kind of like Billy did, get behind him to help him pursue a dream. So I think he feels that and can tell that part of the story, I think, in a neat way."
Tade is currently in New York City, where he has been rehearsing the past couple of months. He will make his Broadway debut in a little more than a month from now, on May 15.
Email: spenrod@ksl.com
