Why does Kibera Ballet School teacher Mike Wamaya use ballet to help children in Nairobi?

Mike Wamaya said ballet's physical training teaches children body presence, body placement and body awareness, which he sees as key to growing up. The Kibera Ballet School has run for more than a decade in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums, and also offers academic support and help with school applications and scholarships.

Flavian, one of Wamaya's first students, is in her final year of medical school at the University of Nairobi.
Fifteen-year-old Lydia has attended for close to ten years.
The pupils have performed at the Kenya National Theatre.

▸In their words

“We use ballet because it has a lot of body training components in it.” Mike Wamaya · at 22:39 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-10-31). Read the whole episode summary →

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