LAGOS (Reuters) – Gracefully spinning amongst a gaggle of dancers clad in purple, 11-one year-veteran Anthony Mmesoma Madu stands out in sunless leggings, a white turtleneck and poise previous his years.
Anthony Mmesoma Madu, an 11-one year-veteran ballet dancer, poses throughout a rehearsal with different college students on the Bounce of Dance Academy in Lagos, Nigeria July 27, 2020. Picture taken July 27, 2020. REUTERS/Seun Sanni
His folks in Lagos, Nigeria’s teeming lagoon metropolis, wished him to alter right into a priest. As a substitute, he has captivated a whole lot of a whole lot alongside together with his ballet.
“After I am dancing, I consider as if I am on excessive of the sector,” he informed Reuters.
A video of him dancing barefoot inside the rain on concrete outside the studio the put he trains, the Bounce of Dance Academy, went viral ultimate month.
Better than 15 million other people beget watched his blissful leaps and pirouettes, undeterred by the rain and unsuitable floor.
The video caught the evaluation of the elite American Ballet Theatre, which gave him a scholarship and arranged recordsdata superhighway salvage entry to for digital working towards this summer season season.
Subsequent one yr, he’ll educate inside the US on a scholarship from Ballet Earlier Borders.
“When my mates peep me dancing, they really feel love, what’s that this boy doing, is he doing a worldwide dance?” he acknowledged. “Now I even beget gained an enormous prize to move to the U.S. … I’ll attainable be inside the airplane and that is what I am ready for, and ballet has executed it for me.”
The video additionally sparked a flood of donations to the academy, which teaches its college students free of charge. Founder Daniel Ajala Owoseni acknowledged he’ll clarify the cash, and fame, to advertise ballet in Nigeria, a nation the put it’s not but broadly practised.
“I noticed the beget to sigh a salvage of labor that reveals self-discipline, dedication and dedication,” he acknowledged. “School college students who’re in a state of affairs to be taught all of those can … change (them) into different spheres of their lives.”
Additional reporting by Angela Ukomadu in Lagos; Writing By Libby George; Enhancing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Mike Collett-White
