When last did you visit Ghana? When last did you hear the new trend of beat cooked by any of the Producers? When last did you attend any social function or religious gathering? When last did you see papas and mamas do their old-skool gig? When last did you see lovers do the rock-n-roll steps?
My questions may seem so much driving towards a mad man who isn’t thinking straight upstairs but your thoughts will ever remain your thoughts and mine will remain mine, abi? To ease all these questions and answers, give and take scenarios, let me hit it straight, it is the new ‘madness’ in town and it is a new dance that sometimes I wonder and ponder if the real originators knew of the consequences of the invention.
What is in a dance? To me I have come across some steps which have either made me visit my doctor for days or which have made me regretted ever partaking in the ‘act of committing suicide’. I again feel and consider that dance should be whatever move one feels like taking so far as it doesn’t hurt the body, but no! What we have now are steps close to reaching heaven because even in the tabernacles of God, these steps are practiced.
When one particular step came out in the Southern part of Africa, it was just a nightmare as most people thought it was a Visa to achievement. Then a kind of new step came up in one Western part of Africa, Nigeria particularly with Yahozee (a dance which you must look towards heaven and gesture with your hands as if you are demanding for forgiveness of sin from your Creator). That dance swept even the holiest person.
I can still remember one day when a man of God proudly announced that it was ‘time to give God a Yahozee offering’, yeiiii, I murmur. Then from that same Nigeria, came Alanta, this time the dance arrived in a sequence with which you must use your two hands to pinch your chest or breast depending on where you deem fit, not forgetting that you two legs must rise at intervals, no be small thing. I may be right to conclude that this dance got one popular musician’s song banned. Am just guessing ooo.
Then recently the new rave in town has arrived and this one almost beat the rest, it is the AZONTO dance. A step that even have taken over sermons in churches. The trend is so massive that every producer is seen as lazy if he cannot pounder that beat. If you are a musician in Ghana and your tunes aren’t channeled towards what your fans want, then ‘sorry’ go be your name; AZONTO dance came to my mind when I heard one popular rapper in Ghana who can do sixteen bars without breathing, do a new tune after his awards. I felt that will be it, but this is rather it, the rave of the moment – AZONTO DANCE.
The AZONTO dance is a Ghanaian dance which involves movement of most of the joints in the body in a rhythmic fashion taking very few steps. Just like most African dances, knee bending and hip movements are rudiments to dancing it. Movement in the dance includes washing, driving, boxing, making-up et cetera. The dance evolved from the combination of a lot of local dance moves that originated from the southern-most part of Ghana during the early 2000s. It is also true that before the dance became famous, youth in senior high schools of Ghana, had a similar but different way of doing the dance. A modification of that is what we see today. It involved a similar movement of the feet, hands, and hips and at the end of every move a gun shot was mimicked with the hand and if possible the mouth. The exact origin of the dance is from Greater Accra in areas like Bukom, Chorkor, James Town, Tema and most of the coastal areas in Ghana. The dance is believed to have been taken to other parts of the capital by visitors from other part of the capital like Osu, Labadi and Dansoman who visited a popular street bar called Club House where most of the people of Bukom visit on weekends to dance to loud music. However, its popularity, both on local and international platforms has been propagated by a new wave of entertainment talents emerging in Greater Accra City of Ghana.
Everyone is dancing it; everyone is going crazy with the ticking off the clock. Now competitions are set to see who the best is. At a funeral last Saturday, I wasn’t surprised when a corpse rose and did the AZONTO dance, my friend also confirmed that in church last Sunday, a special announcement was made by a deacon in regards to the best dancer of the AZONTO dance.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Uy81G5wfQ&feature=related
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