An 11-year-old Nigerian boy receives scholarships after his ballet video goes viral – and many are amazed with his impressive talent.
Free Scholarships for Ballet Dancer Boy
Ballet is a dance that people often associate with girls, but one Nigerian kid proved that the dance can be for anyone, whether boy or girl!
Photo credit: AIJA GIST TELEVISION / YouTube
The boy, identified as Anthony Mmesoma Madu, wowed everyone with his impressive ballet moves, particularly because most of the kids in his neighborhood don’t even know about ballet. In fact, he is so different from the kids in their community that everyone is puzzled how he learned the dance and what it is all about.
“When my friends see me dancing, they feel like, what is this boy doing, is he doing a foreign dance? Now I have won a grand prize to go to the U.S. … I will be in the plane and this is what I am waiting for, and ballet has done it for me,” Anthony said.
He is referring to scholarships he received from the American Ballet Theatre and Ballet Beyond Borders. The elite American Ballet Theatre is not just offering him scholarship this summer term but has also arranged for the boy to have internet access at home so he could participate in the lessons.
But more exciting things are yet to come for Anthony who will train with Ballet Beyond Borders in the United States next year! The academy has already began working on his papers as they plan to bring the Nigerian kid to the US.
Aside from processing his papers, the ballet academy will also pay for his plane tickets and will provide him with full scholarship, including board and lodging.
Anthony currently trains with Leap of Dance Academy. After his story went viral, the academy received a lot of donations that founder Daniel Ajala Owoseni plans to use to promote ballet in Nigeria.
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuXgMUSAP_Q&feature=emb_logo
Ballet for Boys
Ballet is a dance often associated with girls but is actually great for boys, too. Guys in ballet are called ballerinos. There are lots of benefits for ballet in guys. Some of these are:
- Becoming more agile
- Building upper body strength
- Gaining core strength
- Exceptional talents could become pros