by Stephen Drill (Herald Sun, Australia)

JOEL De Carteret is proof that small acts of kindness can change a life.

The hip-hop dancer was found abandoned on the streets of Manila, the Philippines, as a toddler and rescued by a caring taxi driver.

Tonight the 26-year-old Melbourne performer, known as JD, will take to the stage in the first live show on Channel 10’s So You Think You Can Dance.

He said taxi driver Joel Mansello, after whom he was named, rescued him and took him home for the night.

He then handed him into an orphanage, where he was adopted by an Australian family.

“It’s so amazing that in a busy street in Manila, just by chance, he saw me and looked after me. He could have just drove past,” JD said.

“One little gesture of generosity blossomed into something amazing.”

He came to Australia when he was five and struggled with English. But he learned by watching Tony Barber on television game show Sale of the Century.

“I saw Tony Barber when I was a kid and I was so excited I got his autograph,” JD said.

His adopted mother, Julie De Carteret, said her son was one out of the box.

“He’s passionate. Dancing is his life,” she said.

JD has worked with music stars such as Destiny’s Child, Ja Rule, Guy Sebastian, Holly Valance and Tina Arena.

He returned to the Philippines for the first time in 2000 and visited his former orphanage.

A year after he returned, JD quit his IT job to dance full time.

The other Victorian dancers to make the show’s top 20 are Rhys Bobridge, Courtney Walter and Demi Sorono.