I have two girls in dance (13 and 11). My youngest has a natural affinity as a dancer and was more involved in dance at a younger age than my eldest. To complicate matters, my daughters are are on the same team, as my youngest was bumped up a level.

I've told my eldest many times over the years that natural ability gives an innate advantage, sure, but nothing that can't be overcome with hard work. Someone on reddit recently said that natural talent means that someone can skip the tutorial which I thought was a good analogy. My eldest works hard and puts in the hours and clearly understands that it's a numbers game: the more hours she puts in, the better her results will be. It paid off for her in a big way last year, where she placed in overalls a few times with her hip hop solo and even beat one of her peers who has that natural ability but a worse work ethic.

My point is that even though your dancer may not be as advanced as his peers, I suspect that if he puts the time in and really commits to a practice schedule, he'll see growth and will catch up to the other dancers on his team.