LAGOS – The Secretary, Guild of Nigerian Dance (GOND), Emmanuel Adejumo has urged Nigerians to embrace dance as a therapy to relieve stress and keep fit.
Adejumo, popularly known as Boisala, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that dance was being used as therapy for curing some illnesses, including insanity.
According to him, in cases of insanity, dance can help to restore sanity by playing a kind of music and following with some dance steps.
“Some native people that cure insanity use dance steps and if it is continuously done, the insane person can regain his sanity.
“Dance helps us to appreciate science because of what it does to the body.
“Many people do not know that dance has a therapeutic nature that can be used to heal many illnesses,” he said.
He said that dance was not for entertainment or self-expression alone, it could also do a lot of other things to the body in order to keep it healthy.
“Someone’s psyche can be touched because of dance, but not many people are aware of that.
“The alertness of the minds and physical finesses of many Nigerians would increase if dance is adopted as a therapy in the country.
“That is why we hold workshops, seminars and talk-shops on dance and what it does for the body,” he said. [eap_ad_1] According to Adejumo, dances like the bata, traditional, salsa, samba and others, are being taught in universities, so that a student either specialises as a choreographer or a professional dance therapist.
He, however, said that the challenge dancers faced was that many people see dance as just a means of moving one’s body, usually for entertainment, “but it is no longer so’’.
“People now read dance to doctorate degree level; so, it shows that it is no more just dancing for entertainment, but a serious business.
“If we had the power to do the physical one, what about the intellectual side of it? We should be able to adequately tell what we do in clear terms.
“After dancing and anybody wants the dance to be interpreted, the dancer should be able to adequately explain what he or she has done,’’’ he said.
Adejumo said that some of the basic requirements for dancing were an able body, a sound mind, passion and the zeal to dance. (NAN)
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