Ballet instructor who trained Spider-Man star Tom Holland breaking down social barriers with free tutelage for Leeds students

Martin Howland recognised the potential of two students he came across through secondary school outreach work, Imani Hassan-Smith and Benjamin Williams, and offered them free tutelage for a year.

He believes stereotypes have become attached to ballet and that people think they can only practice it if they have done so from an incredibly young age. Martin is also keen to dispel the belief shared by some that ballet is exclusively for an elite.

"Accessibility is the main issue here," Martin explained. "It's about getting ballet into communities who would never even think about actually taking part in a ballet class because it is seen as being quite elitist. People are doing their best to bridge that gap but you need to get into those communities and make things available for young and old performers regardless of age.

"Ballet is precious sometimes, I find. Money is a big part of it as well. I’ve taken all of that aside, they’re not wearing ballet gear, they’re in joggers and socks, and we’re training up like any other sport.”

One of Martin's students, 15-year-old Imani from Buttershaw Business & Enterprise College Academy, believed she needed to have a certain appearance to take up the dance. “Growing up and seeing what the stereotypical ballet dancer looked like made me think you had to have the stereotypical body type and “look” to do ballet," she said. "However, I believe this project will change how myself and others view ballet because it doesn’t just have to be limited to people with certain characteristics.

“Ballet is a very demanding style of dance which I believe will challenge me both physically and mentally to push me to be the best I can be. The discipline that comes with ballet will help me with anything I do in the future.”

The other dancer learning under Martin's watchful eye is 16-year-old Benjamin of Allerton High School, who said: “I’ve always wanted to do ballet but never really had the chance, especially when my friends all played football. I didn’t feel confident enough to pursue ballet until Martin came into school and spoke to me about this project."

Fortunately for the pair, Martin has experience in training people with no ballet experience and raising their competence levels. He was once given the responsibility of training one youngster in ballet to prepare him for a Billy Elliot show. That youngster was Tom Holland, who now plays the role of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"He [Tom Holland] didn't know ballet at all,” Martin said. “He just had pure work ethic. I wouldn't even say he was insanely talented but he was just a great kid to work with. I was given him as a sort of project to get his ballet up to scratch for the show. I realised I could train someone from nothing into something.”

Martin is now hoping to replicate his transformation of Tom Holland’s ballet abilities with Imani and Benjamin as part of his project ‘Howly Ballet 4 All’. Others have bought into what Martin is trying to achieve with the project and have offered to weigh in with support. A health and wellbeing specialist is going to offer their expertise to Martin’s proteges, as is a nutritionist.

"Ballet can be quite authentic,” he said. “It's kind of antiquated and a little bit traditional sometimes. I have a more slightly more relaxed feel to my classes, but without ever losing that discipline.

“I use a lot of popular music in my class, and I kind of use my personality to reflect my ballet. I guess ballet does need a bit of modernisation. It’ll be really interesting to see how far these kids have come afterwards.”