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| Andi Ismaili while being interviewed by Euronews Albania |
Two-time world champion and one-time European champion in modern ballet. This is the 14-year-old Andi Ismaili from the village of Forinë in Gostivar, who also aims for a gold medal in the world competitions at the end of this year.
Andy had started to learn modern dance through social networks while he never dreamed that one day he would be the one who would give shows to the public as he does now and reap successive successes.
"I started at the age of 9, and I started liking this profession from social networks. At first, I was inspired by a dancer on social networks, and then my uncle's wife contacted a ballet teacher and she saw that I was talented and I started collaborating with her," he says.
The dancer says that it was not easy to win these challenges, especially in world competitions.
Andy has the biggest support from his family, which covers all the expenses for his competitions, without the help of the country's authorities.
"Unfortunately, no one helped me financially. But my parents helped me, and so on...These competitions cost a lot, for example now I have to go to a competition in Egypt", says the dancer.
Andi also often remembers bullying and teasing by peers at school. But he promises to break this taboo.
"Yeah, there aren't many boys in dance and I've had a lot of bullying, bullying at school, and it's become so popular that even teachers have started doing it. This is very bad", he recalls.
Despite the fact that at the moment he is engaged in modern dance in parallel with his studies at school, in the future he plans to become a professional dancer with a diploma.