The beautiful story of a young Nigerian dancer spotted thanks to a video
The young dancer Anthony Mmesoma Madu in Lagos.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
An 11-year-old Nigerian dancer saw his dream come true.
Anthony Mmesoma Madu has been awarded a scholarship by the American Ballet Theater in the United States.
A video showing the boy performing ballet steps in a wet Lagos courtyard had gone viral to the point of attracting the attention of the prestigious American institution.
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With our correspondent in Lagos,
Liza Fabbian
It was the image of a young boy dancing barefoot in the rain that moved the whole world.
The video of Anthony Mmesoma Madu's performance was released at the end of June on Instagram.
It has since been widely relayed, including by the famous American actress Viola Davis.
See this post on Instagram
FACTS ABOUT OUR PROGRAM.
Behind those fanciful in class beauty and costumes are lots and lots of backstage hard work.
With very little or no resources our kids are training to be the best they can.
This is not to bring down anyone but to show their high level of dedication and committments to our program.
Who wouldn't be proud of them?
What teacher wouldn't pray for students who shows / comes to class with so much desire to learn?
Kids who are ready to dance with or without conditions.
Imagine what more we could achieve if we have more? 🙂 DMs for more information.
#leapofdanceacademy # covid19 #donation #vocational #nigerianballetschool #travelingtutusincnigeria #danceacademy #danceeducation #weloveyou #growth #weloveourpartners #yeswecan #dancing #learning
A post shared by Leap of Dance Academy (@leapofdanceacademy) on Jun 17, 2020 at 6:32 am PDT
To the point of also attracting the attention of Cynthia Harvey, former principal dancer and director of an American ballet school.
Fascinated by the young Nigerian dancer, she sets out to find him, then contacts the American Ballet Theater in New York.
Thanks to her, Anthony Mmesoma Madu has been able to follow an online training course delivered by this prestigious institution in recent weeks.
Trained by a self-taught teacher
But this beautiful story is also a victory for Daniel Ajala, the young boy's teacher.
Every day, this self-taught dancer transforms his modest home in Lagos into a dance studio, in which he has been training ten children for free since 2017.
Thanks to the success on social networks, his students have received numerous training or scholarship proposals from all over the world.
And Daniel Ajala hopes that this spotlight will soon allow him to open a real studio to continue teaching ballet to children in Lagos.
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