Malta Street Dance rocks Takoradi

April 12, 2008
Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu
The Malta Guinness Street Dance Africa contest stormed the Akroma Plaza in the Twin-City of Sekondi-Takoradi last Saturday on its first stop to unearth dance talents for worldwide exposure.
The well-patronised event revealed how much people have longed for dance competitions which sadly vanished from our entertainment scene some years ago.
People started streaming into the auditorium of the newly built Akroma Plaza as early as 6.00pm hours before proceedings were scheduled to begin. Some of the people probably got there early so as not to miss any of the performance by Kwaw ‘Abodam’ Kese.
The competing groups, comprising four to six members each, came up with interesting names such as Magic Dancers, One Day Dancers, Bone Thugs, Vigone Dancers, Rotten Images, Extra Terrestrial, Bugi Bust, 2-Puff and Beautiful Mad Boyz.
Their fans abandoned their seats and stood throughout the contest as they applauded every stage of the proceedings and danced along with the contestants and guest artistes.
By the end of the first round, the judges had to take the hard decision to cut down the number of groups from nine to five with Vigone Dancers, ET, Magic Dancers, 2-Puff and One Day Dancer making it to the second round.
After another round, Vigone Dancers made up of five young men and a lady emerged as winners and took the prize of GH¢1,000 and a ticket to represent the zone at the national final scheduled in Accra in June.
They were followed by ET and 2-Puff, who received GH¢600 and GH¢300 respectively.
Kwaw Kese’s performance as guest artist carried its own thrills. Entering the hall dressed in military-style camouflage, the police had a hectic time controlling the crowd, many of whom at a stage rushed just to touch the artiste or capture him on their mobile phones as he danced to his rap.
At the end of it all when the fans got out of the auditorium, the words on their lips were that the introduction of the Malta Guinness Street Dance was long overdue.
Winners at the zonal levels across the country would converge on Accra and battle for the national title and a chance to compete at the Pan-African Championships in Lagos, Nigeria, and eventually on the world stage in the United Kingdom in August, this year.