IMITATING LIFE WITH LORNA
How a Summerville boy traded the soccer field for ballet, trained under a former prima ballerina, and landed a full scholarship to American Ballet Theater’s summer intensive.
“You can be anything you want to be, darling.” Isn’t that what children are told from day one? It’s so often repeated, the dreams encouraged, the imagination set ablaze. Then, all too often, that’s where it stops. Those inspiring words are replaced with ones like, “well, we don’t have that in a small town,” or “we don’t have the money for that,” or “maybe when you grow up, but let’s do something realistic first.” Then the dreams that are more difficult to navigate fade away. They get buried in reality unless we work every day to uncover them. One boy in Summerville proves that those dreams don’t have to die, that anything is possible, and that the road to success can start right here, as alive as any, from the sweet tea capital herself.
Sarah Rogers didn’t always realize her son was uniquely talented, because she was so distracted in watching his pure joy. From the time Wells could stand, he found a way to dance. Soon, he mimicked Disney choreography to a T and even showed advanced agility in soccer. He would conjure up entire routines to any tune he heard. This prompted his mother to post videos of her little riot on social media for friends and family to enjoy, and they noticed. That’s when someone recognized the level of talent Wells was showing the world, and sent Rogers a message letting her know that a school in town, Classical Ballet Centre, was looking for boys to dance ballet on scholarship.
Rogers said, “Wells was very into soccer and was the team’s goal scorer with such good footwork skills at a young age, so it had to be up to him whether or not he wanted to dance, because he couldn’t do both at the same time. I remember he sat down and watched boys dancing ballet on my computer and without hesitation, he jumped up and said he chose ballet.”
Now at 13 years old, Wells Rogers just finished his “dream summer intensive” at the American Ballet Theater in New York City, where he was accepted on full scholarship. He aims to get into their professional program and also has interest in possibly joining The Royal Ballet in London. He is well on his way, and in large part that is in thanks to his incredible teacher and mentor, Melania Ballish Regueiro, affectionately known by her students as Mrs. Mel.
Regueiro is a world class instructor leading young ballet enthusiasts to their dreams right here in Summerville. The retired professional dancer left her home in Brazil at age 14 to join the Cuban National Ballet Company. In 1992, she won a bronze medal at the Brasilia International Dance Competition, and then joined the Volkstheater Rostock in Germany in 1995, eventually becoming a prima ballerina. She’s danced principal and titular roles as Juliet, Carmen and Giselle. Her list of accolades goes on and on. And when she met a young Wells Rogers, she knew she’d found someone special, even commenting to his mother on his natural ballet posture.
However, even with an incredible support system coupled with the innate joy of dance, Wells hasn’t always found being a boy ballet dancer in a small southern town to be the easiest path. To that, his mother said, “It comes with a ton of stereotypes from family —friends —strangers — expectations physically and mentally that can really burden a child, potential burnout from all of the training and rehearsals, hard peer relationships both in ballet and school and a lot of isolation with being one of the only male dancers in the area. One of the biggest blessings for Wells and our family has been summer intensives where he’s able to train and be around other boy dancers that have the same experiences and goals.”
Wells commented, “I have the best support from my family and friends, so that makes it easy to be me and not be afraid that it also means I’m a boy ballet dancer. All of the right people in my life have always loved that part about me, just like I love that they have passions and things that make them special too. There are some days where I think it’d be easier to choose an art or a sport that’s more common around here, but that would be the least Wells thing to do. I like opening up everyone’s perception of ballet and boys who dance. It’s not always an easy thing to do, but I hope at some point I can inspire a boy to think about ballet differently.”
Sometimes it can be easy to get lost in doing things that have been pre-approved by social standards. Standing out starts conversations, both positive and negative. However, it’s those brave souls who decide to be unapologetically themselves who inspire true greatness. They don’t let go of those kinds of wishes we were all free to make on shooting stars as toddlers, then lost over time due to circumstance, judgment or even logic. Wells Rogers is living proof that any dream is attainable from any small corner of the world if one is willing to lean into the calling, dig deep and find the tools around them to succeed. Wells doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk; or perhaps, he dances the dance.
Though Wells is certain to one day pirouette around the globe, he leaves Summerville with one final thought. “I promise that wherever my career takes me, I’ll always be back to help Mrs. Mel and to keep showing our little town that boys can be ballet dancers too.” In that is the bigger picture of what he’s doing. He isn’t only reaching for his own stars; he’s collecting them for those who should come after.
