Dancing their way to stardom

Some of the dancers
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Two professional dancers, Agocha Davies and Ishioma Adesuwa, speak with GBENGA ADENIJI on the essence of a performance held at the University of Lagos on Saturday

Besides being from Delta State, Agocha Davies and Ishioma Adesuwa are bound to the same passion that trascends tribal affiliation. They are both professional dancers.

It is this zeal for adjusting the human body to conform elegantly to the rhythm of sounds that made the duo to jointly organise a three-day project tagged Dance Advance.

The project, which, Davies says, is designed to advance dance in Nigeria, featured 10 dancers who asserted their dancing ingenuity with artistic steps and body movements.

According to Davies, the dance performance held on Saturday at the Creative Arts Department, University of Lagos, was the final staging of what the dancers learnt during the first two days of the three-day workshop.

Davies, states that they have always looked forward to organising such a project for the advancement of dance in the country. He adds that the dancers were recruited via online publicity.

Davies says, ‘‘The workshop is to enlighten dancers and make them understand the techniques and ethics of dance itself. It is not just about coming out to dance. It involves building a career in dancing. We held classes and recruited artists’ dancers who assisted us with the classes.

“Ten dancers were at the workshop. On Monday, we introduced them to the genres of dance because they were a bit alien to them. But because many of them have been dancing before, it was not too difficult for us to teach them. The second day which was Tuesday was more rigorous. Many of them.”

Besides, Davies explains, the project focuses on training up and coming dancers on the genres of dance that are acceptable globally. He notes that modern dances such as classical ballet are not known in this part of the country.

Davies further states that they are not going to train the dancers and abandon them to their fate. He says they will constantly monitor their improvements in their resolve to blend African dance with what obtains globally.

Also, Adesuwa notes that through the project, they are trying to expand the horizon of African dance so as to be in tune with modern dances.

She says, ‘‘This is because many dancers do not have the background in dancing except the African dance which we also value. We are grooming these dancers for international competitions where many of the genres of dance are incorporated in traditions.’’