A BALLET gala featuring some of the world’s top dancers and hosted by star choreographer Wayne Sleep is being organised to help a four-year-old disabled Woking boy to receive medical treatment that will allow him to swallow and eat normally.

Dancing for a Dream is being put together by the boy’s aunt and uncle, international principal ballet dancers Laurretta Summerscales and her husband Yonah Acosta, who is the nephew of superstar Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta. The couple live in Kingfield, near their nephew Dexter Summerscales-Heard, and his family.

Performers will include principals and soloists from the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich. Carlos Acosta has sponsored some of the dancers’ travel costs but will be with his dance company in Cuba when the gala takes place. However, it will be attended by his wife Charlotte and eldest daughter Isla.

It will be held at the New Victoria Theatre on 10 November and the money raised will go to helping Dexter, who was born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, to be able to eat normally after a series of health problems left him being fed through a tube.

Dexter suffers with epilepsy, is unable to speak and is also fully reliant on his wheelchair and family to assist his daily activities.

Laurretta said: “Regardless of all of this, Dexter is intelligent and possesses the mental capabilities of any ‘normal’ boy of his age.

“He has an abundance of energy and great sense of humour and is renowned as the class clown, as he always sees the funny-side of situations.”

To buy tickets for Dancing for a Dream, visit www.atgtickets.com/woking or call 08448717645.

For the full story get the 26 September edition of the News & Mail