Every human society has a culture. I doubt if ever animals behaviours are not cultural to them. Let us concern ourselves with human culture, because that is where we belong and should be able to make contributions.
Sociologists believe that culture can be borrowed, modified and or abandoned. Hence we then say that culture is dynamic.
One would have thought that all civilized cultures should struggle towards improvement and enhancement. By this way, culture becomes a living phenomenon. This could be achieved by borrowing what is good about any culture and integrating or adapting it into your own for improvement. Dance which is to almost every human society is one such attribute.
Different dance styles should depict the richness of such culture but what do we have these days. This erstwhile ball dance of the Elizabeth era which involved a man and a woman holding hands and moving in such regulated speed and style, swinging up and down which indeed was glamour, and used to keep our eyes glued to the television watching members of Ukonis club do their thing in splendour has died.
Then came the Beetles of England, so rich and popular that they forgot themselves and even rated their popularity above the Lord Jesus Christ they of course died as well.
Somewhere the music and dance style then known as Twist came on board. Guess what? There used to be a name of an American guy said to have introduce the dance style. His name was Chubby Cheeker. We were told that his twist dance style twisted him to death and the dance style was abandoned. A lot of water as dance and dance styles passed under the human society bridge until another guy called James Brown, a very handsome man indeed came on board. His dance style, dress code and hair do, all pointed towards a roughian on stage. Pop as the music and dance were then known ruled a world bereft of morality. We ever had our own Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his “show body” music and dance style.
In all these, our various traditional dance styles remained impressive, unpolluted and easily identifiable with different cultures. It should be recalled that on a popular note we had our traditional highlife music in almost all segments of the Nigerian Society. We also have the juju music indigenous to the Yoruba culture which influenced most dance styles there. In our Igbo society we had different dances that confirmed the richness and diversity in our culture.
I cannot forget our traditional Igbo dances carried out with pomp and pageantry and the waist’s moved in grace and splendour. Indeed, a sight to behold. I recall with joy the Abi Igbo and Abigolo dances with the grace with which the dancers carried themselves. I recall that of a time the Nkpokiti dance of Anambra State and the Nkwa Umuagbogho dance of Afikpo were thrillers and best sellers, that each of them was at one time or the other the worlds number one and contributed immensely to Nigeria’s cultural exports to the world at large.
My heart bled on the eve of the celebration of the Nigerian children’s day on the 27th of May 2013 when I saw children on a free dance spree. Ordinarily one would have said that they were children and therefore knew not what was wrong in their dance styles. The truth is that all the dance styles as exhibited were obviously copied from the adults and mirrors the present day decadence in our society.
The dance styles cannot pass for calisthenics. They are simply employed by adult female dancers to send their male watchers to frenzy but now fully imbibed and assimilated by children for what is in vogue. Seductive dance steps should not be any body’s culture. As I watched these children dance away their innocence. I began to recite the portion of my bible which says that if we train up a child in the way he should go, he will not depart from it when he grows. Virtually, every one these days go to church. Whether they are Christians or not is not the question now since it is a matter of choice but they all have and need the bible, and if not, ought to have the glimpse of a better future for their children.
Now that we are training the children wrongly what future are we expecting? When they grow up with the understanding that wriggling your waist violently exiles male watchers or that the only way to fully impress your audience is by the violent use of your waist in a most offensive manner, very careless of conscience.
Any wonder that today we have night clubs where nude dancing is practiced. In a world bedeviled with pornography, homosexuality and most unfortunately the recent same sex marriage called GAY are we not really outdoing Sodom and Gomorrah.
All those protagonists of child rights and abuses should now speak up and save the children from a dance culture that portends nothing short of hell. All those who are enjoying the sight today will surely regret the outcome tomorrow.
