Before the introduction of latest dance moves, there were older dance moves that were the ‘in-thing’ then. You would hardly go for an event or ceremony without the disc jockey blasting jams that would get people grooving. These ‘old school’ dance steps have been replaced with the new school.
Nowadays, we hear of ‘shaku shaku’, ‘pilolo’, ‘kupe’, ‘shoki’,’ gwara gwara’, ‘zanku‘ and others. This is peculiar to the ‘gbe body‘ generation. It comes with so much energy and flexibility.
The beauty of these dance trends is that more keeps popping up. People are getting more creative and we have modern music genres. Let’s see if you are familiar with some of the old school dance moves:
Running man
Come on this was one of the first dance moves to bust any house party
Makossa
This was the first dance trend of the 2000s riding on the rhythmic Congolese sound. Music artistes, Koffi Olomide and Awilo Longomba, who toured the continent with their massive hit songs popularised the Makossa dance. Makossa means “dance” in the native tongue of Cameroon’s Douala; no wonder it made us dance.
Galala
This dance step from the “the ghetto” or Ajegunle, Lagos, originated from the pseudo-reggae sound made popular by artistes like Ras Kimono, Blacky, Fada U Turn, etc. However, Daddy Showkey will be remembered as the initiator of this dance.
Suo
Just like Galaa, Suo also originated in the same Ajegunle ghetto as Daddy Showkey’s music. Dancehall musician, Marvellous Benjy’s pushed the dance in his song“Suo” which was a massive hit at the time. The duo of Mad Melon and Mountain Black, known as the Danfo Drivers, also adopted the dance style in their music.
Etighi
Etighi came from Calabar/Akwa Ibom region of Nigeria. It became mainstream popular when Iyanya, who is from this region released the video for his hit single, Kukere in 2012.
Skelewu
After Nigerian Afro-pop singer, Davido wowed everyone with his hit single ‘Skelewu’ released on Aug 18, 2013, it was followed up with a beautiful dance step to promote the song.
Shoki
This is one of Nigeria’s most controversial dance steps because about three acts claimed to be its originator. They are Dre San, Lil Kesh and Orezi. It went underground in Lagos for a year before Lil Kesh promoted the dance with the release of his hit single “Shoki” in 2014.
Sekem
Sekem dancers are flexible and lovely to behold. The jolly sideways, back and forth dance step was created by MC Galaxy on his hit track Sekem.
Shakitibobo
This dance was instigated by self-styled King of the Streets, Olamide. In 2015, Olamide released another one of his sneak attacks on radio and the clubs titled “Bobo”. In what looked like a mere freestyle when it was first released, Olamide’s Bobo became a big hit when its visuals was released with a trending dance step that got many moving their arms and bodies.