African dance has sustained the authenticity of its origination as it has been passed down from generation to generation: Almost everything we do in music today — Jazz, hip-hop, pop-locking, stepping, and break dancing — is derived from African Dance.
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The thing that really has stayed true in African dance is that each move has a meaning and each dance tells some type of story. No matter who you are, after you dance African dance, it’s impossible to be sad.
African dance comes from a place of joy and freedom of expression. This is why my mother, Kukuwa Kyereboah-Nuamah, and I love to spread the knowledge of it and make it contagious.
Africa is such a rich continent filled with such unique and beautiful culture, and even though our dances vary in each region and country, the message and feeling of joy, freedom and love for life is universal!
My mother created an African dance workout called “KUKUWA®” (kukuwafitness.com). This workout is a fusion of African dance that allows one to travel the continent of Africa through music and dance — without your passport!
My mother and I also allow people to experience the continent of Africa outside of class. We do fitness and cultural excursions to different countries in Africa each year along with traveling to different countries all over the world to share the joy and and contagious spirit of African dance thru fitness!
Recently, we just came back from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, and it was so awesome! Asians really loved and embraced African dance. In Japan, specifically, 90 percent of our classes were filled with participants older than the age of 60, which really made my heart smile.
Here’s a brief clip of our travels teaching African Dance:
Here’s us teaching the Agbaja dance at a fitness convention in Malaysia:
Agbaja is the festive dance of the Ewe tribe in Ghana. It makes me smile and proud to see other cultures doing some of our traditional dances.
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