Street Dance Kick Off

Last night, Alan and I went to a Guinness sponsored event to kick of a national street dance competition that is now in its third year. It was held at an outdoor patio/pool area of a local Accra hotel and it seemed that most people in attendance were Guinness employees all decked out in bright yellow t-shirts to celebrate the event.




Malta Guinness, which is the specific brand that sponsors the event, is a non-alcoholic malt beverage that is fortified with vitamins and minerals good for the body. And for those of you not familiar with "street dance," it mostly looks like breakdancing but has a theatrical component to it as well. I'm not sure what the street dance culture is like in Ghana but I know from my days in New York working with youth, that most kids learn from their peers and they do not have any formal training so that it is literally born from the street culture. It is highly energetic, acrobatic, and takes an amazing amount of strength! When I worked at my last job directing the drop-in center for youth in New York, I participated in a breakdancing class to see what it was all about, and could not complete one move because I didn't have enough upper body strength. I have tremendous respect for this guys and especially because it's not as if they've had comfortable studios to practice in with instructors and such...they've probably learned and practiced on concrete outside!



Anyway, this event was meant to kick off the competition. They have picked 10 dance groups as the finalist competitors from around Ghana and then in May the final competition will take place which is judged by professional dancers, performers, and choreographers from Ghana who were also at the event last night. So last night the groups had 30 seconds to come on stage and show a sampling of their skill. There was a stage set up with lighting, television crews filming it, and the music was blaring (hip hop mostly). It was quite an event and of course the Guinness (an local Star and Gulder) beers were a plenty. Here are a few favorite shots of the dancers.














The afterparty was a good time and we enjoyed more Guinness Malta and spicy goat skewers that came around on trays. The performers just kept dancing during the afterparty and Guinness staff joined in. We didn't stay too long because the goat skewers weren't going to cut it. So Alan and I joined his Irish colleague and some of his colleague's family that were visiting from the U.S. and Ireland to go to Champs...a sports bar of sorts...for some good old sports bar food and football (not the American kind) on the big screen. It turned out that it was trivia quiz night at the restaurant which was maybe half full of expats and half locals so of course we joined in the fun. It was a long night of trivia that proved pretty successful for us. Our team won a round of tequila shots for the table and got second place overall...we lost by one point! We would have won if it wasn't for Alan's insistence that he was right over one of our Irish teammates on one of the questions (what U.S. state has an element on the periodic table named after it?). It was California and Alan insisted Oregon! What was he thinking! Well, I didn't know the answer either but regardless we won some money off of our bill. I think we'll go again next Thursday and redeem ourselves!