Sikaman Palava: Ghanaman's dancing steps

I have been wondering since when dancing became gymnastic and acrobatic. From the days of the likes of Wilson Pickett, Oti Redding, Sam Cooke to James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, Winston Groovy and lately Michael Jackson and Bobby Brown, dancing has been dancing and had nothing to do with acrobatics.

Of course, a bit of acrobatics can be introduced into dancing as a spice rather than a dance form. Where acrobatics and gymnastics pass off as dance in competitions and judges are impressed, I become a bit disappointed.

I am not a good dancer myself, having lost my legendary skills when I started quaffing beer and developed a powerful pot-belly. Today, I'm a born again Christian with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I no longer have the desire for booze although I must admit that some advertisements of beer make me reminisce the good old days.

It is not exactly temptation. It is a reminder of where I've come from and where I've reached. Only God knows how well I'll end, but I have all the hope that Kwame Alomele will end well.

Yeah, I used to be a great dancer even if people thought otherwise. You don't expect everybody to admire what you thought was your great twists and turns, jerks and twirls on the dance floor. But I think 1 did great because I was pencil thin, tall and agile. The feeling among some readers IS that all columnists are short. People see me and say, "I didn't know you were so tall". It means I'm supposed to be short!

I used to do Michael Jackson's moonwalk with my pal Wass-Pee in our Legon days. And when break-dance became popular, I ceased to be a human being. I became a robot.

In earlier times, I was not quite fascinated with dance styles like Oldman Boogie which my friend Billy Gunther did so well while we were in sixth form. There were also 'cat' and 'dog' that were so fascinating, but when dancers started behaving as if they had developed rabies, I lost interest.

Check out the dance forms on television today and a good number of them are plain acrobatics. If I were a judge, I'd tell those dancers to go and perform on March 6 or at the opening ceremonies of soccer tournaments. There must be a distinction between dance and acrobatics although both seem similar at certain points.

Now, I'm happy that Miss Ghana has a dance component. When the dance segment was taken off, the show lost its glory. In fact, the pageant has gone through many transformations. At a stage, one group was organising 'Double-do Miss Ghana' and another 'Triple-do'. Everybody was confused.

At a point, organisers started defaulting in paying winners their prizes and the contest lost its credibility. Later organisers changed hands, but the absence of the dance component took out the thrill in the programme. Everybody will agree with me that the re-introduction of the dance contest has made the contest regain its former vibe.

Added to this is the fact that the contest is organised at the regional levels first to precede a grand finale, as it was in the old days.

For those who are not aware, dancing is one of the best exercises any doctor will recommend. The more vigorous the dance, the better it is for your blood circulation and your heart.

South Africans dance mostly with their feet and waist and it can be fascinating to watch Zulus dance. Some simulate the movement of birds of the air and animals and their choreographies can be mind-blowing.

Sadly Ghanaians have forgotten how to dance. In the good old days when there was night life, when the discotheques were even running afternoon sessions, Ghanaman always thought about music and dance. The bands were playing in "afternoon jump" sessions and workers could steal company time to enjoy one hour of good dance-band music and rehearse some latest styles. Those were the days Faisal Helwani was promoting bands.

My mummy used to tell me that in their time, you just didn't go to the dance floor. You had to learn how to dance. You attended dance lessons in the evenings and a coach took you through the likes of waltz, fox- rot, chachacha and the rest.

Later on dance became freestyle and individuals developed their own styles and turned the dance floor into a disorderly platform. Some dancers needed 'more space because they started somersaulting, rolling on the' floor, trying to break their necks and passing wind. Very dangerous if you ask me.

Today, there are no bandstands, no afternoon jumps, very few discos. Some discos we have today are full of junkies wearing earrings and pickpockets waiting to relieve you of your monthly salary.

To make it worse, the armed robbers just wait patiently for you to finish enjoying yourself and they trail you. If they are able to catch up with you, they ask for the 'balance' you have on you, and you have to account for it.

It is another form of accountability and probity. Yes, working for yourself but getting accountable to someone else at knife-point. And since when did this one begin? It began when armed robbery ceased to be a vice and became a profession studied and practised just like journalism, accountancy and medicine.

Credit: Merari Alomele(The Spectator) Email:[email protected].

www.merarialomele.com