Queen Extel wins Kaffy’s Fearless Danceboss Challenge

With her sublime talent and originality, 23-year-old female dancer and instructor, Esther Sunday has emerged the winner of the Fearless Danceboss Challenge powered by Nigeria’s dance queen, Kafayat Shafaru Ameh popularly known as Kaffy.

Also known as Queen Extel, Esther left a big impression on the jury at the live-streamed show headed by the veteran dancer and show convener, Kaffy, to edged out four leading male dancers at the grand finale event.

The colourful finale, which was held a the Majestic Entertainment Studio, Lagos, was the climax of four weeks of virtual activities including dance battles, webinars and interaction with subject-matter experts.

For her dance dexterity and fluidity, Queen Extel was awarded a cash gift of N300,000, one-year health insurance package named after Kaffy by Avon HMO, and another one-year life insurance policy worth N1,000,000.

All five dancers who made it to the live show based on a weekly accumulation of points of the past 21 days, took their turns to present a pitch for a dance commercial for the event’s lead sponsor Fearless Energy Drink. Three were lucky to make it to the final battle where each of them presented short, curated dance pieces.

In the end, the jury comprising dancers Donflex and Lovett Otegbola, who were joined by ace music video director, Akin Alabi, were unanimous in crowning Queen Extel as the winner for her outstanding dance performance.

Over 100 dance talents from across the country who participated in the competition also benefited from knowledge-sharing sessions, as subject-matter experts took them on mental and physical health, entrepreneurship, and money management.

Speaking after the event, the elated Extel said: “It’s a dream come true for me. Many times, while teaching my students, I have mimicked myself announcing my entry to a big stage as a winner of a show in my head. And it came to pass today as indeed, a dream comes true.”

“Apart from the competition aspect, I have gained a lot of knowledge on self-confidence, dancepreneurship, and to impact the young generation,” she added.

While 22-year-old Osas Jaywise finished as the first runner-up and went home with N200,000, 27-year-old Pwafukadi Japheth Ngbaranduma also known as Jeremy J, went home with N100,000. Both runner-ups also got health and life insurance prizes.

The three top dancers also went home with Dance Boss empowerment kits like printer, backpack, gimbals, headphones, hard-drive, boom box, and dancewear set to boost their creative enterprises.

On the motivation behind the dance challenge, the host Kaffy said: “Fearless Danceboss Challenge is about dance battles and an empowerment platform to equip the next generation of dancepreneurs.”

Setting the pace for others, Kaffy broke the Guinness World Record in 2006 for the ‘Longest Dance Party’ after dancing for 55 hours, 40 minutes. She has gone on to become a household name in the dance industry in Nigeria and founded the Imagneto Dance Company, where she trains aspiring dancers and dance enthusiasts.

Started out as a young teenage dancer decades ago, Kaffy had no idea she was going to redefine dance in Nigeria and turn her passion into a goldmine. She took her dance sessions seriously, regularly training at the National Stadium in the early 2000s before she began her career with a stage performance.

She has also gone on to create The Dance Workshop and Conference (TDWC), where individuals and organisations both in the music and dance industries meet to discuss pertinent issues and where dancers can hone their skills.

“More than just a workshop, TDWC is a movement which seeks the interests of Nigerian dancers. We are trying to change the narrative, to give dancers a structure, to teach them how to behave and how to sustain wealth for the rest of their lives,” Kaffy stated.