Ghana to celebrate World Dance Day with Azonto

On April 29 2016, Ghana will join over 200 countries worldwide to celebrate dance as a creative arts discipline.

While the world takes on different dance forms as pertaining within their region to celebrate this year’s day, Ghana and Ghanaians all around the world are encouraged to dance Azonto.

World Dance Day, also known as the International Dance Day was initiated by the World Dance Council in 1982.

Affiliated to UNESCO and based in Paris, the dance council, referred to as CID, has been promoting dance each year, with specific messages and themes to promote the good values of dance on the said date in various countries.

This year, Creative Arts in Motion (CAiM), organisers of Ghana Dance Festival, leads the nation to the celebrate International Dance Day in Ghana (iDDiG) under the theme, “Give Azonto a Voice.”

According to the CEO of CAiM, Mr Robert Klah, “Azonto dance is Ghana’s contribution to the world dance syllabus and as such Ghana needs to flaunt it as its own. Contrary to popular believe, Azonto is not just a dance move; it is the umbrella name for all street dance types we dance to Afrobeats, specifically AfroPop. In the past, most people felt comfortable dancing hip-hop dance to hip-hop music, but could not capture the excitement, pauses and expressions of our Afrobeats in their dance.

“With the advent of Azonto - a derivative of ‘Kpanlogo’, with the infusion of several other dance moves such as ‘Mezop’, ‘Awukye’, ‘Gbee Ohe’ and the like, Afrobeats music has taken on a whole new experience, as Azonto dance gives us the perfect avenue for dance expression. Azonto dance on Afrobeats has produced a visual delight, resulting in international recognition and acceptance. So on this first edition of the grand celebration of International Dance Day in Ghana (iDDiG), we do not only want to give Ghana a reason to dance, we also want to give a resounding voice to our Azonto dance, and also showcase the present Azonto moves.”

Interested participants only need to capture a 5sec to 60sec video of yourself dancing any of the Azonto moves, and on April 29, upload it onto any of the social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – with the following hashtags- #iddig #azontodancefromghana #danceteratv.

Alternatively you can send your videos and pictures via Whatsapp to the number +233506679491.

It’s a call to action for all Ghanaians living in Ghana and abroad, all friends of Ghana, and all lovers of Azonto, to join in the celebration of the Azonto dance on World Dance Day.

IDDIG is the first grand celebration of World Dance Day in Ghana, an initiative of CAiM and powered by Dancetera TV, a dance TV program showing on GhOne TV, every Wednesday at 8:30pm. For updates and enquiries engage Dancetera TV on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) @DanceteraTV.