The often-spoken perception that traditional dance is too old fashioned for today’s youth was proved wrong once again last Thursday when the Akwaaba Cultural Group gave an hour-long performance in front of an excited audience at the poolside of the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra.

The event, dubbed “Akwaaba Cultural Nite”, was organized by Family Tree Entertainment, managers of hiplife musician Obour, highlife artiste, A.B. Crentsil and gospel artiste Noble Nketsiah.

According to Stephen Howard, a representative of Family Tree, the event was meant to showcase the beauty of Ghanaian cultural dance and also to formally inaugurate the Akwaaba Cultural Group.

The group gave seven different kinds of dances to the audience who were dominantly foreigners. They were so much captivated by the group’s performances that most of them were on their feet either dancing along or taking pictures of the action on stage.

The Akwaaba group first performed the Kete and Adowa dances of the Asante. In these dances, the dancers were appropriately clad in colourful kente clothes. One of the dancers played the role of a chief and wore a beautiful kente cloth and was adorned with gold-coloured necklaces and bracelets.

The group also did the Gome dance of the Gas, Agbekor war dance from the Volta Region as well as Otofo, the puberty rite dance of the Dangmes.

Another type of dance which the group created themselves as a form of social dance was Kadogbe which looked more like one from the Volta Region because of the costumes of the dancers and the rhythm of the drumming.

There were also funny scenes on stage which kept the audience laughing. During the Kete dance, for example, a seemingly drunk messenger with a gong-gong in hand drew laughter from the crowd as he staggered and frequently fell on the floor.

There was also a masked man in a scary costume whose gestures equally created humour during the Agbekor dance.

One part of the show which kept the audience’s eyes locked on stage was during the Otofo dance when the female dancers actually exposed their breasts on stage as was traditionally done by females during the real puberty rites.

While the general performance captivated the crowd, it was also a fulfilling moment for the Akwaaba Group which consisted of young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25.

According to the leader of the group, David Adjei, a.k.a Skido, Akwaaba has been in existence since 1998 as a free style dance group that backed hiplife and highlife artistes like Mzbel, Castro, Obour, Kofi Sammy among others.

Later on, based on the advice of Obour, the group decided to shift from free style to strictly culturaltraditional dances which they have stuck to since.

Their maiden performances were done in Togo where they entertained crowds in hotels and schools. The then 18-member group returned to Ghana and continued with their performances at hotels, schools, charity organizations and regularly at Alliance Francaise.
The group accompanied Obour on his national tours of all the regions of Ghana during the “Best of the Lifes” concerts with ace highlife musician A. B. Crentsil.

They have also toured Germany, US, UK, France and other African countries on the ticket of Family Tree.