Crowd favourite Arafat hottest stepper
Feb 01, 2009
THE second season of Hot Steps finals last Saturday at Hotel Africana had more lessons than the sheer excitement of watching outstanding teenage dancers do what other humans cannot do.
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
THE second season of Hot Steps finals last Saturday at Hotel Africana had more lessons than the sheer excitement of watching outstanding teenage dancers do what other humans cannot do.
Dance, though of the dancehall type that so much bordered on the Jamaican passa passa, works like a magnet. It has as much power to attract as to repel. For this audience, it was mainly an attraction.
With little communicative quality to the dance moves, it was the acrobatic body contortions that sent the crowd wild.
So it was the dancer whose body best reminded you of an excited octopus that took the sh5m crown.
Arafat Igoma, the crowd favourite and by far the most composed dancer, was rewarded on a night that saw only two girls (fondly called by their fans on first name basis as Nahia and Amina), step up to the finisher’s podium.
With a kind of dance that requires a balance of energy and rhythm, girls were not expected to have the wildest celebrations. That is why it was incomprehensible when one of them ailed back stage after losing.
The judges; dance tutors, choreographers and dancers, were only in agreement on the performance of the eventual winner. But dances have a world of their own.
Picking dummy cheques turned up as another dance moment. Each dancer wanted to have the last with the audience and did more dancing, complete with relevant facial expressions, as they snatched, kissed or hugged the cheques.
Artistes Mozey Radio and Weasel had a tight grip on the teenage audience during the music interlude. The other winners were Micki (sh2m), Andrew (sh1.5m) and Amina (sh1m).
THE second season of Hot Steps finals last Saturday at Hotel Africana had more lessons than the sheer excitement of watching outstanding teenage dancers do what other humans cannot do.
Dance, though of the dancehall type that so much bordered on the Jamaican passa passa, works like a magnet. It has as much power to attract as to repel. For this audience, it was mainly an attraction.
With little communicative quality to the dance moves, it was the acrobatic body contortions that sent the crowd wild.
So it was the dancer whose body best reminded you of an excited octopus that took the sh5m crown.
Arafat Igoma, the crowd favourite and by far the most composed dancer, was rewarded on a night that saw only two girls (fondly called by their fans on first name basis as Nahia and Amina), step up to the finisher’s podium.
With a kind of dance that requires a balance of energy and rhythm, girls were not expected to have the wildest celebrations. That is why it was incomprehensible when one of them ailed back stage after losing.
The judges; dance tutors, choreographers and dancers, were only in agreement on the performance of the eventual winner. But dances have a world of their own.
Picking dummy cheques turned up as another dance moment. Each dancer wanted to have the last with the audience and did more dancing, complete with relevant facial expressions, as they snatched, kissed or hugged the cheques.
Artistes Mozey Radio and Weasel had a tight grip on the teenage audience during the music interlude. The other winners were Micki (sh2m), Andrew (sh1.5m) and Amina (sh1m).