Looking at Kaffy on Hennessy billboards all over the country( for me, their best creative ever), I’m super delighted to see how far dancers and the dance industry in Nigeria has come. Despite the fact that dance is rooted deeply in our culture and it’s as important as music is to the millions of audience, it was puzzling on why it took the industry so long to reach Eldorado.

About 18 months ago, I sat with GGB, one of the trendiest dance groups, to get their perspectives on the industry. GGB is an acronym for Girls Got Bold. The trio of dancers and choreographers was founded in 2014, the members are Roseline Afije(Liquorose), Ifeoma Efiokwu(E4ma) and Emmanuella Odiley (Ellaley).

YOUR VIEWS ON THE DANCE INDUSTRY?

‘The Industry for dancers and choreographers is yet to receive the proper recognition it deserves. As one of the most important components in showbiz, we are of the opinion that more should be done for us. The perception towards our industry need a 360 degrees turn around.

We are battling on many fronts to survive. We don’t have enough dance facilities in Nigeria; we have very limited numbers of dance studios in the country. Even the few, seldom do we have those properly equipped with good facilities; so that makes it difficult for us to achieve a lot.

Another difficulty is the fact that there aren’t enough platforms that totally embrace and encourage dancing as a brand but despite all these setbacks, we have survived for several years entertaining and educating with so many of our projects. We have been able to showcase better perspective about the industry and also teach people on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The road has been tough but interesting.

It took the music, photography and djing industry a while to pull through; dancers and choreographers will continue to work till we eventually make it through. Despite the shortcomings, we can still say that the dance industry has grown to an extent. We now have control on how we want to be paid. Dancers now grace the red carpets, get invited for media interviews and award shows; dancers now get nominated for awards. It’s a big plus.Thanks to SPAN, Kaffy, DNMT and a lot others, who unarguably paved the way for dancers in Nigeria’ – GGB