When Anthony Mmesoma Madu, 11, was videoed practicing ballet barefoot in the drizzling rain in Nigeria earlier this year, he thought the footage would be used for a common film study session.
Instead, the cellphone video of him performing the pirouette without shoes on the unevenly wet concrete was seen by a much bigger audience. The video has garnered more than 20 million views on social media including by Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo, who has won Grammy and Tony awards.
Madu's practice dance session was so impressive that it earned him a ballet scholarship with the American Ballet Theatre in the US. It also showed his community that anything is possible.
“I feel very, very surprised, very, very happy,” Madu said after his fellow students at Leap of Dance Academy staged a performance on a dirt street in Lagos, Nigeria, while tossing dust into the air in celebration.
“I thank God that he made the video to go viral,” he said.
Davis shared Madu’s video with her 1.4 million followers on Twitter. She wrote in the caption “Reminds me of the beauty of my people. We create, soar, can imagine, have unleashed passion, and love.... despite the brutal obstacles that have been put in front of us! Our people can fly!!!”
Erivo decided to sponsor Madu's training and helped bring the video to the attention of the American Ballet Theatre, said Laura Miller, a spokeswoman for the dance company.
“When I got that call that I won a scholarship to the US in the year 2021, I was very, very happy, I was like, ‘What? Is this what God can do?’” Madu recalled. Ballet, he added, "is hard to learn but if you put your effort, you can learn it.”
I wanted to be able to give an opportunity to every child by making my programme free so that they would be no excuse that any child could give that it was the reason they couldn't pursue their love for dance
Madu is too young to physically travel and study in New York. The minimum age to be a student in the city and live in a dorm is 15, but he’s been offered a summer scholarship, with the possibility of him continuing this fall under discussion, Miller said.
Miller said the American Ballet Theatre is currently working on a schedule for Madu that works with the six-hour time difference. The company is also talking to him about taking part in weekend programmes.
The video was the idea of Madu’s trainer, Daniel Ajala, a self-trained ballet dancer. He’s also the founder of Leap of Dance Academy, which he started in 2017.
Ajala suggested the idea as a way for Madu to review his technique. He’s been a strong advocate in supporting his students to follow their dreams, despite their circumstances.
“I wanted to be able to give an opportunity to every child by making my programme free so that they would be no excuse that any child could give that it was the reason they couldn’t pursue their love for dance,” he said.
Ajala said his dance school has received donations, which will be used to create a standard dance academy with housing.
“Some of our students have to walk one hour or there about to the academy so we wanted to have like a comfortable space for them to be able stay while they can’t go home.”
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About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
The specs: 2019 Cadillac XT4
Price, base: Dh145,000
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged in-line four-cylinder engine
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 237hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Soldier F
“I was in complete disgust at the fact that only one person was to be charged for Bloody Sunday.
“Somebody later said to me, 'you just watch - they'll drop the charge against him'. And sure enough, the charges against Soldier F would go on to be dropped.
“It's pretty hard to think that 50 years on, the State is still covering up for what happened on Bloody Sunday.”
Jimmy Duddy, nephew of John Johnson
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
