He has received standing ovations on world stages for his dancing.
A gap year to Denmark turned out to be a year that was to open doors for world champion dancer Paul Modjadji, whose cultural exchange programme to Europe was just a way to experience a “cultural shock” and be exposed to a new way of life.
But the then 18-year-old boy from Hammanskraal, Pretoria, didn’t know it was in Denmark that his life-long dream of dancing would see him represent SA all over the world.
While in Denmark in 2002, Modjadji was the recipient of the Danish Dansevaerkstedet Dance scholarship Award. He said the scholarship reaffirmed for him that dancing was a way in which he was going to make a change in the world.
At 18, Modjadji spoke at the UN, the following year he won the Global Young Leaders Award from the Washington, DC-based Global Young Leaders Organisation.
“I saw myself as just a dancer who had a dream… but I was given an opportunity to represent young people from SA,” he said.
Since then, Modjadji has represented the country at numerous dance competitions globally and he was the winner of last year’s European Star Dancer Union World Dance Championship in the Jazz Division, making him the first South African to win the competition.
In July he is will represent his country at the Talent American Showcase in New York.
Modjadji believes that the opportunity to represent SA at the Talent American Showcase in front of “heavyweight” producers, teachers of the world and also getting an opportunity to perform on Broadway, is going to put his country on the map.
“When one person shines on international level it shows the world that if there is Paul in South Africa there must be many more others,” said Modjadji, who believes he is an “agent of change” through his dancing.
With two months to go to his New York trip, Modjadji said he was still struggling to find sponsors or funders to support him.
Modjadji said finding funding and investors was the biggest challenge for dancers in this country and that even though he has been recognised by some of the best judges on world stages as the best dancer, he still has to knock on doors and be rejected to try and perfect his craft.
“People think dancing is just a hobby, but like other professions, it needs money to support it,” he said, adding that just like rugby and soccer, dancers also needed sponsors.
He said it was a painful experience that he was recognised all over the world for his dancing career, but failed to get the same recognition in his home country.
“I can go to London and open a studio, people would flock in because I’m a world champion, but that won’t be the case in my country,” he said.
He said it was painful and something felt amiss that the world recognised him but “my own people don’t”.
“There is nothing like getting a pat on the back from home,” he said.
Modjadji now works with other young people to teach them music, drama and dance.
He believes that to pursue their dreams, young people should start where they are with the little that they have.