A 2017 video of Tom Holland ripping through fouette turns on the floor of London’s Royal Ballet School has passed 161,000 likes on X since it resurfaced this month. It landed days after Holland was confirmed to play Fred Astaire in an upcoming biopic from Paddington and Wonka director Paul King, and the internet has decided the clip settles any doubt about his footwork.
The clip everyone is sharing comes from a seven-minute fundraising film about Joel Kioko, a Kenyan teenager who used the footage to help pay his own way into one of London’s top ballet schools. Kioko’s name barely shows up in the posts now crediting Holland.
A 2017 Clip Passes 161,000 Likes on X
The resurfacing started with a disagreement. A critic on X questioned whether Holland, known mostly for backflips and quips as Spider-Man, had any business playing one of the most technically demanding dancers in film history. Someone else answered with receipts.
A user posted the nine-year-old footage with a one-line caption that read, “I think he’ll be ok!” The repost took off fast.
- 161,000+ likes: what the repost has pulled in on X since it started circulating this month
- 7 minutes: the runtime of the original Flett Films short the footage was cut from
- 9 years: the gap between when the footage was shot and when it suddenly went viral
- 30: Holland’s age now, as he trains to play a Hollywood dance legend on screen
Viewers zeroed in on the technical difficulty of what they were watching. “The turns he’s doing here are so hard,” a reply picking apart the footage argued, “the point is to make it look effortless but these are… so incredibly hard. I love this casting, honestly.”
A Fundraising Film for a Kenyan Teenager
The footage comes from a short film by the London production company Flett Films, shot by producers Emma Flett and Heidi Gomes. It follows Joel Kioko, a ballet dancer auditioning in London who crossed paths with Holland on the same studio floor. The film’s stated goal was to raise donations toward Kioko’s tuition and housing in the city.
Partway through, Holland tells Kioko what struck him about their shared background.
It’s an amazing form of communication. I’ve learned my dance moves in London. You’ve learned your dance moves in Africa, but they’re the same dance moves.
Holland says it to Kioko directly, comparing notes on the same studio floor where the viral clip was shot. The full film, still hosted on Vimeo nine years later, runs seven minutes and barely resembles the clipped, out-of-context version now bouncing around X.
Who Is Joel Kioko?
Joel Kioko grew up in Kuwinda, a slum in the Karen area of Nairobi, Kenya. He started dancing around 2014 and trained under Cooper Rust, an American ballet teacher based in Nairobi, who recommended him for a scholarship audition in London. He won a full ride to the English National Ballet School in 2017, after just three years of training.
Kenyan and international outlets covered the scholarship at the time as a rare pipeline story: a teenager from one of Nairobi’s poorest neighborhoods landing at a conservatory that typically recruits students who have trained since early childhood. CNN profiled him that year as one of Kenyan ballet’s rising talents.
Joffrey and Syracuse Come After London
Kioko’s path did not end with the scholarship. He spent three years at the English National Ballet School and kept building a career after graduation, moving through American companies most of the people sharing Holland’s clip have never heard of.
- 2017: Wins a full scholarship to the English National Ballet School after just three years of training.
- 2020: Graduates with a three-year diploma and professional trainee certificate.
- Fall 2021: Joins the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company in Chicago, dancing in a Nutcracker staged by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and in Appalachian Spring.
- Fall 2024: Joins Dissonance Dance Theatre.
- 2024 to 2025 season: Moves to Syracuse City Ballet’s official dancer roster and performs in the company’s Nutcracker.
- April 2025: Dances in Sweet and Bitter, choreographed by Africa Guzman.
That career barely registers in the reposts. The 161,000 people who liked the clip mostly know Kioko, if they know him at all, as the blurry figure Holland is dancing near.
Holland Learned These Same Turns as a Preteen
Holland’s own dance background predates Spider-Man by a decade. He started with hip hop around age 9 at Nifty Feet Dance Studio in London, according to Dance Magazine, then spent two years training in ballet and tap before joining the West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical.
He debuted in June 2008 as Michael, Billy’s best friend, and stepped into the title role that September at age 12, holding it through age 14. The part required ballet, tap and acrobatics, and people who worked on Marvel’s Spider-Man films have said Holland’s dance training and physical control were part of why he landed that role years later.
| Category | Tom Holland | Joel Kioko |
|---|---|---|
| Started Serious Training | Hip hop at 9, then two years of ballet and tap | Ballet around age 14, in Nairobi |
| Big Break | Cast in the title role of Billy Elliot at 12 | Full scholarship to English National Ballet School at 17 |
| Formal School | West End stage training, no conservatory | English National Ballet School, London, 2017 to 2020 |
| Working Now | Training to play Fred Astaire for director Paul King | Dancing with Syracuse City Ballet |
The resume gap explains why the clip landed so hard. Holland has been dancing, on and off, since before most of his fans were born.
Paul King’s Astaire Film Is Eyeing a 2027 Shoot
Holland confirmed the Astaire role earlier this year and has grown more specific about how he wants to shoot it. He told Deadline in July that he intends to dance every number himself, without a double, filming routines in long unbroken takes the way he believes Astaire would have shot them decades ago. The untitled production, directed by Paul King, is eyeing a January 2027 shoot start, according to trade outlet World of Reel.
A second, unrelated Fred Astaire biopic is also in development, attached to actor Jamie Bell. Holland’s version, from the director behind Paddington and Wonka, is the one with an actual production timeline attached.
Holland is currently juggling promotion for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and the Marvel sequel Spider-Man: Brand New Day, on top of Astaire prep. The ballet clip keeps spreading regardless.
The Credit Nobody’s Tagging
Ballet training tends to open doors far outside the studio. One former ballerina built an entire second career around hers, trading pointe shoes for the professional speaking circuit once her performing years wound down. Kioko, for now, is not going anywhere near a lectern.
The clip kept circulating in fresh reposts for days after the first one broke through. Few mentioned Kioko by name.
Kioko has said his own ambition is to become one of the world’s leading dancers and eventually give back to Kenya’s dance community, the same one that had almost no ballet infrastructure when Rust first spotted him. He is currently working through Syracuse City Ballet’s season, several thousand miles from both Kuwinda and the 161,000 strangers arguing online about someone else’s turns.
