Wayne Ellis was 14 when first he joined a dance programme at his school in Brooklyn. He liked it immediately and wanted to learn more.

"Beyoncé is my idol. She inspires me a lot, so that is why I decided to get more into dancing," he said. "I started at the Pure Elements dance school in Brooklyn, and from there successfully auditioned for La Guardia – the school for the movie 'Fame', where I will be entering my sophomore year."

Meanwhile, Wayne received a last-minute call from Richard Toda, artistic director of educational outreach at ABT, inviting him to be a Dizzy Feet participant in DanceBermuda. With just days to go before the summer intensive began, the teenager scrambled to make the necessary preparations for his first trip overseas, and in fact went straight from the airport to his first class.

"To dance in Bermuda, and with the ABT, is a dream," he said. "I am so thankful for the opportunity. We dance for nine hours each day, and I am being challenged. We work with great teachers and artists, and that in itself is amazing for me."

He summed up his impression of the Island as: "So beautiful".

"Everything is so bright and colourful, completely different from New York. To have this small Island in the middle of the Atlantic, with the water, and the breezes, and the weather, it's just wonderful."

Wayne is the first in his family to pursue dance, and has a deaf twin brother whom he describes as "the complete opposite".

"He is more sporting, and football is his favourite."

As for his future, the 16-year-old revealed he has a host of ambitions.

"I want to do movies, act, be a dancer, have a clothing line. My goal is to do it all."

Alex Kramer has been a dance student for nine years. Now 16, it was his babysitter, a former dancer, who encouraged him to take up the art. Today, he is one year into his studies at the American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre in New York, which he entered by audition.

Alex had heard about the Dizzy Feet Foundation from fellow students, so when 'JKO', as the school is affectionately known, urged him to audition for the trip to Bermuda he was "nervous but excited".

Not only had he never been out of the United States before, but also he didn't know where Bermuda was.

"I thought it would be a good experience to just go off and do it, and I am really enjoying it," Alex said. "The classes are really, really different, and it has been a challenge, but I have gained a lot of strength in this programme, and also learned a lot of exercises which I can do to build strength."

As for the way DanceBermuda is structured, the talented teen feels the programme has been very well set up to expose him to various styles of dance which he hadn't done before.

Like all of the overseas students sweating it out in Bermuda's heat and humidity, Alex admitted it was hard to adapt, but assured he liked the Island in general. "Bermuda is really nice, and everybody is very nice and very accommodating, which has been good. I would come again," he said. Originally from Colorado, where his family still lives, Alex moved to New York to attend JKO, and anticipates that he will be there for another two years. With his high school education completed, what happens after JKO depends on what offers he gets.

"Ballet is what I want to do, and there are a lot of different companies out there, so I just have to figure out what to do," he said of his future.

Skyler Maxey-Wert inherited his love of the arts from his parents, both of whom are performers. His father is a professional mimist, and his mother has a Master's degree in dance therapy. She also teaches martial arts.

Skyler began studying at the Lancaster School of Ballet in Pennsylvania when he was five, and last year moved to New York to continue his studies at JKO on a full scholarship. News of winning a Dizzy Feet scholarship to participate in DanceBermuda came in a surprise phone call to the family friends with whom he lives.

"I didn't know anything about Dizzy Feet or Bermuda, so I went to ABT and asked them, and here I am," the 14-year-old said.

He particularly enjoyed the diversity of the DanceBermuda programme, and would definitely come back again, finding Bermuda, its people, beaches and scenery "amazing".

As for the future, Skyler "definitely" wants to become a professional dancer, but with years of training ahead of him, has not yet decided which form this will take. Meanwhile, living in New York is the fulfillment of a long-held dream.

"There's never a dull moment," he smiled.