GONDP set to celebrate World Dance Day 2024 in grand style

The Guild of Nigerian Dance Practitioners (GONDP), Lagos State Chapter is set to take Lagos State and the entire nation by storm on Monday, April 29, the day set aside every year to marks World Dance Day celebration. World Dance Day (WDD), also referred to as International Dance Day (IDD), was created in 1982 by the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), UNESCO’s main partner for performing arts, to commemorate the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), a French dancer and ballet master, known as the father of modern ballet.

GONDP Lagos Chapter, in a statement, said the annual celebration of dance and the practitioners of dance all over the world, leaves no doubt in mind that dance is wholly recognised as a profession that has come to stay. “This celebration clearly undermines the triviality many once and some- times, some still attribute to dance, because by itself, it has broken through restrictions of practice in several climes, and become widely accepted, practiced and celebrated unabashedly. “While the world awaits the World Dance Day 2024 theme, the Guild of Nigerian Dance Practitioners, Lagos State Chapter has decided to take some steps by first looking inwards to assess it’s self and the relationship that exists between it and the professional dance practitioners in Lagos State,” the statement read in part. “Through this assessment, it has come to the realisation that apart from our indigenous Nigerian traditional dances, Lagos State plays host to diverse genres of dances, which the Guild is meant to be custodian, keeper and protector of, without bias or sentimental tilts in favour of any particular style, but rather to ensure that all styles are given equal recognition and level playing field to be seen, appreciated and to flourish in Lagos State.” According to the statement, with this in mind, the Guild is celebrating this year’s edition with the theme “Dance…connecting the world, one dance at a time”, and using this as a clarion call to all dancers, irrespective of the genre that they practice, to come out in those styles, so that they too can be seen, recognised and celebrated as contributors to the socio-cultural and economic growth and sustenance of the society.

This clarion call is urgent and stems from years of negative beliefs and narratives that the Dance Guild had been established only to cater for Nigerian traditional Dancers, rather than for all dance styles in Nigeria.” The Guild further stated that in order to debunk these false beliefs, the it will be celebrating this year’s edition with an exhibition of a potpourri of dance styles in several communities across Lagos, with a view to showcasing the unity that exists in the divers dance styles, the beauty and elegance of each style and the unity of purpose in their delivery, especially when all the styles are per- formed to the same music. “Yes, you heard right, the same music. Each dance style, ranging from our unique Ni- gerian traditional dances to Western, Latin, Contemporary, Afro, Naija Urban etc, will all be performed, using the same music created by DJ Mark ‘Markiss’ Oise, specifically for the purpose of bringing all dance styles together and to be celebrated by the Guild. “With this singular act, the Guild clearly wishes to establish its commitment to dance as a professional practice, and to perform it’s innate duty, which requires it to give due recognition, respect and protection to all dance styles, and by extension, the practitioners of these styles.”

In the next couple of days leading to the celebration of World Dance Day on the 29th of April, several dance activities have been scheduled to take place within Lagos; first, a videography team made up of Babs ‘Scoobie’ Ademoye and Faith ‘Phaith OT’ Okoh, will be shooting the diverse dance styles of different dance groups inside Ikorodu, Gbagada, Oworonsho- ki, Ketu, Bariga, Surulere, Amuwo-Odofin, Ajegunle, Badagry, Lagos Island and Lekki communities, then a team of choreographers, made up of acclaimed dance sensation and winner of Maltina Dance All Family competition (Season 2), Ukalina “@chakrapink” Opuwari, Timothy “Surpyking” Jakande and Onome “@Realisokoboy” Riches will be holding pocket dance choreography cre- ations around Lagos, as a build up to the final exhibition on World Dance Day. The venue for this year’s edition is at the Creative Arts Department of the prestigious University of Lagos. “The choice of venue was apt, in that the Guild is also propagating for a union between the town and the gown, which would ensure that students in the creative arts department experience first hand the connections that exist amongst the di- verse dance styles, the uni- ty of purpose when dance creations come into play and the joy that resonates in the world when they are exhibited,” the Chairman, Lagos State Chapter of GONDP, Ugo D. Obiayo, Esq said.

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