“Madu,” the Disney+ documentary streaming March 29, begins as a Cinderella story but quickly dives into life-changing realities.
Anthony Madu, born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, has loved dancing, particularly ballet, since he was five. A viral video of Madu dancing in the city’s mean streets prompted a bolt from the blue: The offer of a 7-year scholarship from London’s Elmhurst Ballet School where his dream as a ballet’s principal dancer could come true.
But for Madu, that meant there were inevitable sacrifices and surprises, as recorded by the documentary’s duo directing team of Matthew Ogens (Oscar nominated for his 2021 documentary short “Audible”) and Nigeria’s Joel Kachi Benson.
Madu, now “14 going on 15,” had the expected culture shock but also much more.
“I have to say when I moved to the UK,” Madu began in a Zoom interview from London, “it was quite hard because I was missing my family and things were fairly different. You’ve got the weather, the cultural shocks and foods. All that sort of thing.”
He had learned early on in Nigeria to ignore the bullying aimed at a boy doing ballet.
“Back in Nigeria, a lot of people said that I shouldn’t be doing this and made fun of me. Which was kind of really hard. Sometimes, I would have thought that maybe I shouldn’t do more of that. Then my mom encouraged me to keep going because it’s always been what I wanted to do. I think that’s really helped.”
Shortly after he began classes Madu revealed he had difficulty seeing in one eye.
Doctors discovered his left eye had been infected, probably at birth, and left untreated.
“My eye wasn’t particularly working and when I told my mom there wasn’t really that much to do about it because you didn’t get a really good treatment for that sort of thing.
“Only after did I find out what happened, what caused it. But there’s nothing they could do about it.”
At the end of his first year, Madu is evaluated by his teachers and learns he will be able to continue classes. We watch as the teachers say, “What we can see is you love to dance. This is what you were born to do.”
And the documentary ends with a dazzling display of Madu dancing. What is it about dancing that makes him feel better than when he does anything else in his life?
“It’s just different,” he answered softly. “Maybe I like weird things. Because I like the way you can really in different ways show how you feel, your expressions and stuff.”
“Madu” streams on Disney+ streams March 29
