SINO – The Encyclopedia of the dance industry in Africa
SINO – The Encyclopedia of the dance industry in Africa
Words by Sesan Adeniji
To keep the theme African, she needed African dance moves and styling, I was responsible for – choreography, location scouting, sourcing a stylist, to name a few things.
Like music and football, dance speaks the same language that connects and unites everyone together in the world. With the same intensity at which the western world is interested in African music and artists, they are also craving to learn our dances and employ the best dancers to take them through some of the most sophisticated dance steps from the African continent. With the surge in such interest, there’s a demand for some of the best dancers like Sino.
Born and raised in South Africa, this lady embodies the entire dance moves one can Google. She was the lead choreographer in Ciara’s ‘Freak Me’ video. I reached out to know more about that project.
“My real name is Sinovuyo Dunywa but I’m known in the industry as Sino.
Now let’s talk about my collaborative effort with Ciara in her song ‘Freak Me’ featuring Tekno. When her team needed a choreographer for that song, the legendary dancer Kaffy from Nigeria recommended me. As we all know, the song was inspired by and it samples Tiwa Savage’s “Before Nko”.
To keep the theme African, she needed African dance moves and styling, I was responsible for – choreography, location scouting, sourcing a stylist, to name a few things. The location- eventually we had to go with Soweto, Johannesburg. Shot outside Nelson Mandela & Desmond Tutu’s old residences.
“Fun facts”
* I had to hear the music for the first time, choreograph, teach the piece, finalize location scouting & perform it, all in about 1 hour 30 minutes.
* Ciara had initially decided to shoot it in Cape Town, so I began the process of sourcing dancers/choreographer for her there, but she came across my videos in the process & made a last-minute decision to change the location. She made a stop in Johannesburg during her honeymoon where my team and I are based. And we shoot the video there.
* The shoot was somewhat impromptu in that it was not an actual “music video”, but a project inspired by African dancing, fashion & culture that she experienced again whilst here on her honeymoon.
* Dance movements taught /used: I taught her moves from all over the continent, namely:
South Africa (Gwarra Gwarra, Vosho, Sushi),
Congo (Dombolo, KwasaKwasa),
Angola (Bella, Kizomba),
Ghana (Pilolo, Azonto),
Nigeria (ShakuShaku, Shoki, Legwork)
And also some Caribbean styles from Jamaica (Boga Boga, Willie Bounce).
Obviously, due to time, she could only master a few, as she wanted to make sure she “respected our dances” and performed them well.
‘Africa To The World’ – This is one of my missions partly carried through in this project. I believe there’s no better time than now for Africa to take its place on all platforms; the rest of the world’s intrigued with our continent and it’s magic is proof of that. Hence for this project, it was great to see Nigeria and South Africa collaborate on a project for an internationally acclaimed star, like Ciara and unapologetically plug our African vibe and energy into the project.
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Ciara was respectful, curious, appreciative and excitedly embraced the African elements we added to her project and gave everyone involved credit for their part played”.
