Meet Daniel Owoseni Ajala, the 30 year old founder of Leap of Dance Academy, a dance school in Lagos, Nigeria that offers free ballet lessons to talented young students who could not otherwise afford them.
Daniel fell in love with ballet at the age of 9 after watching the movie ‘Save the Last Dance’ and taught himself by watching lessons on YouTube. At the request of his parents, he studied business at university but after taking his final exams, decided to follow his creative calling. When his impeccable dance skills failed to secure him an international ballet scholarship, Daniel decided to open a ballet studio instead, to give other children the opportunity that he missed out on.
In 2017 Daniel opened Leap of Dance Academy to 12 students, the name inspired by the leap of faith he took in leaving secure job prospects behind. He pushed aside the furniture in his apartment, spread a thin vinyl sheet over the floor and draped the wall with candy-coloured chiffon. With the help of an international dance teacher network on Facebook, Daniel learned how to safely instruct his students and source second-hand dance costumes (pictures here).
The homegrown academy captured international attention last year when Daniel posted a video of one of his students, 11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu, pirouetting in the rain. Overnight, influential people in ballet reached out to raise funds for a new studio and invited Daniel's students to some of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world. Anthony has recently accepted a scholarship with the American Ballet Theatre school in New York.
“It’s every teacher’s dream,” Daniel said. “What has happened around the world with the coronavirus has been devastating. But in some ways, it has been a blessing for us because it has brought online learning to the forefront and made it possible to have all these incredible opportunities.”
