Dancers follow world beat

By Antionette Okai Koi

Okai0001@algonquincollege.com

Dance is universal. It is rhythmic, creative and surpasses all cultures. It begins with a feeling that overtakes the body and reacts through movements.

“I feel very good when I’m dancing.”  “It’s important that you understand the music and why you’re dancing,” said Erqin Zeng, first-year English as a second language student.

Cultural dancers say that they’re passionate about dancing because it allows them to show their emotions through the movements and gestures that are part of their cultural history.

“It is a story and your playing an important role. Sometimes I am snow in winter and sometimes I am a peacock in a forest or a famous hero in ancient times,” said Zeng.

Ethnic dance allows them to have an identity, adhere to their heritage and represent their culture.

“I dance to preserve my heritage and keep my baba [grandma] happy, because she danced, and my mother danced and my sister and I do it,” said Alex Down, second-year political science student from the University of Ottawa.

Ukrainian dancers are costumed in high leather boots, vibrant vests, long white blouses and skirts.

“Ukrainian dancing is like Greek dancing but we speed it up,” said Down.

The dance routines involve partners or a line of girls dancing with high kicks, spinning and dancing around a pole to the beat of an accordion and more recently, drums.

Dancing since the age of four, Down misses participating in the annual Oshawa Ukrainian festival due to a heavy school load but vows to teach her kids Ukrainian dancing to preserve their culture and give them an identity.

A supply chain management student and Nigerian native, Abeyomi Nniwosobe describes dancing as a bonding experience because it is social and inherited. “It is embodied in you and the more you dance, the more you love it,” he said.

Fast rhythmic beats, gyrating hips and bow-legged steps, strong hand gestures and different body levels best describe the dance movements of a typical Nigerian dance, like most African dances.

“We move mostly with our legs, the fast beats and the rhythm let you move according to the drum, so you follow the same sequence,” said Nniwosobe.

Alex Mateo of the Dominican Republic, who has only been in Canada for five months can relate. The cultural dances in the Caribbean hold their roots in European and African dancing.

Mateo lists the traditional dances from his country as Salsa, Meringue and Bachata and Bolero. These are the dances he learnt from his mother as a young child.

“I have known how to dance since I was a kid because Latin women like to dance even when they’re cooking,” said Mateo.

The salsa is a repetitive six-step routine of leg movements, hips and turns while the Meringue is a faster and cadenced version of the European waltz with traditional, tropical movements.

“The Bachata is the traditional dance and the Bolera is the slow, passionate dance, so you and your partner are very close.” “The music is about love, sadness, heartbreak and bitterness,” said Mateo, who wants to continue dancing once he is settled in Canada.

The University of Ottawa’s aspiring choreographer, Heather-Clare Nortey is a fourth-year theatre major who is trained in ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, lyrical, modern and basic Latin and ballroom.

“I love it. It is my passion, it grounds me and it keeps me sane. I can’t help it. Some people write, some people pass a ball around, I dance,” she said.

Nortey credits her mother, a former dancer in the Bahamas for seeing her potential at the age of three.

Ottawa is revived with a dance craze that has more people, young and old finding their passion. It’s an escape and the essential exercise within a social setting without the requirement of a dance background or experience.

Regardless of race and ethnicities, dancing allows people to express themselves with no costs or experience.