Ghana's Azonto Dance hits global entertainment stage

Legal experts in the entertainment industry has called on Ghana to patent, brand, package, and adopt international marketing mechanism for the modernisation of traditional dance, Kpanlogo, into Azonto dance for socio-economic gains.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA), has learned that that the sole Ghanaian Dance Craze Azonto, is making wide waves around the world and threatening to spawn its own YouTube industry as dance enthusiasts try to out-do each other by posting the most hilarious and most accomplished Azonto moves on the video channel.

According to the GNA study, the Azonto dance originated from the traditional Ghanaian dance, Kpanlogo which first started in indigenous localities in the Greater Accra Region such as Bukom, James Town, Chorkor and in the port town of Tema.

Now the Azonto dance has taken over other dance forms at clubs, house parties and churches in the country as mainly the youth and those across the world are infected with Azonto movements.

The free style dance involves the shaking of hips, stretching and pointing hands to different direction at a tempo to song beat and sometimes mimicking the performance of household chores like washing or doing some ironing.

More recently, some popular Ghanaian hip hop stars such as Sarkodie, 4×4 and Gasmillan have adopted the dance and arranged their musical beats to the movements of Azonto dancers.

The world has seen lots of Dance Craze creations ranging from break-dancing, the Macarena, the Twist and many more but few will beat the exhilarating vigour, dynamism and sheer creativity of Azonto.

Entertainment legal experts are therefore calling on the Ghanaian authorities to capitalise on the Azonto dance wave and protect it and use it to market the country.