Abimbola Obafunwa is a microbiologist, dancer and choreographer. He is currently the administrator and artistic director of the Lagos Theatre, Igando.

The celebrated artiste, whose Dancedeal Training Foundation produced four of the dancers that emerged winners at the recently held Glo Battle of the Year, said the success is a product of what they do in Corporate Dance world. The training arm is called The Dancedeal Training Foundation.

According to him, “it has been on since 2009 and caters for training young professionals in the country.”

He said, “we discover them, harness their talents, and basically, give them tutelage in dance as well as a platform to shine eventually. We also run a dance fitness programme, which is the second arm, it is called ‘Dancerapy’ and it is from the word Dance-Therapy. It is the fastest growing dance fitness programme in all of Nigeria at the moment.”

Obafunwa said, “we use dance as a lifestyle tool for people to keep healthy. Dance has its natural benefits and its helps you keep fit. It involves a lot of cardiovascular movements. When you do a lot of cardios, what it means is that you get your heart to pump right.”

He said the foundation started as a need to give more Nigerians and Africans the opportunity to harness and develop the art form through dance. It is to basically empower as many young individuals out there as possible and to help them channel all of their energies through the possible waves of dance.

He also said: “To help them develop personally because we have a lot of personnel development classes apart from just dance training to ensure that we help produce holistic young individuals who know that they have the power to create the future that they want to see and are willing to do something about the state that they find themselves right in now.”

He added, “it is just our contribution to humanity, our contribution to the country, to the growth of the country, to basically ensure that through our own life experiences we are able to save a good number of people, young individuals from the vices that plague our society.”

On what was responsible for four of his graduates emerging winners at the Glo Battle of the Year competition, Obafunwa had this to say: “The four winners from the first and second days were Isibor Odigie, Charles Ekwem, Joke Akinbogun and Michael Olarenwaju. This is what I am talking about, the glory point or the dream of every father, not just to be able to transfer knowledge and train people, but to see the reward on global platforms, like this, in their lifetime, and just be able to prove to the young ones, who are hesitant of their journey.”

He continued, “it wasn’t so much about what we gave to them but the fact that they were able to say I am willing to do this and go through it. It is all on them even though we are extremely proud they have won just like those before them and those after them will do. I am super proud of every Dancedeal member around the world who is making us proud.”

Projecting into the future, he said, “We intend to produce more people that will be like them, people that will ride on their shoulders and take it to the next level. It is always about the next level. So, we definitely are producing, and a lot of the people that we have produced are actually getting there and they will.”

On how his organisation is shaping the face of dance in the country, he said:
“It has to do with the mindset. We have trained over 10,000 through our workshops and seminars, as well as graduated over 350 full-year programme students in the last 13 years and what we begin to see is that we have put in them the culture that we want to see them carry. It has greatly influenced how they step into society.”

He also said, “They are definitely stronger, anywhere they go they influence the gathering, and when they open their mouths to speak they are highly intelligent, they are not quick to speak, they are quick to listen and slow to speak and when they finally put their words together, it is full of wisdom. They embrace the right perception of Life. When they take up a job they are more professional, they have an itinerary that they work with, they are professional with their directors and when they take up a job they are diligent in its timely execution. They make sure that it is not over until it is fully executed. So they display a high sense of responsibility. They have dignity.”

According to him, “our ladies are respected when they go out, they are not seen as sensual dancers. When they dance and you see the lines, the arm movements, and leg movements you know that they have been subjected to severe training over the last couple of years. They are extremely fit and they have won competitions just like myself. Completing the one-year training programme is enough competition because if you graduate and earn a certificate you have won the biggest competition of your life.”