By Chris Onuoha

WAJO, a multi-faceted dance focused project in its desire to touch and enrich lives of dancers, dance lovers and enthusiasts from all people of the world is set to change the lives of the youths.

This is aligned with its vision to make dance more prominent and relevant as well as reposition dance as a profession of repute in the society and empower dancers to maximize their potentials is on the verge being registered as a nonprofit and non-governmental organization.

Speaking at a media parley recently, the founder and Managing Director of WAJO, Seun Adeleye explained that WAJO, an acronym originating from two Yoruba words ‘WA’ which means COME and ‘IJO’ meaning DANCE in English put together means WAJO. In other words “is your invitation to dance.”

Seun said that the project which started in April 2013 at Freedom Park, Lagos as an entertainment platform that make dance of every genre available for the enjoyment and pleasure of the audience is also considered as a gathering for people from all works of life to relax and have fun while participating and also an avenue to network and interact with other people. . “One of the hallmarks of Wajo is that everybody dances” he said.

According to him, Wajo’s aims is to establish a pathway to success for aspiring dancers to follow just like the comedy and music scene of the Nigerian entertainment industry, and also creating an awareness on the benefits of dance to the populace.

Adeleye said, “In the course of running this events, we have identified various factors militating against the progress and cohesion essential for growth of the dance community in Nigeria among which are awareness and exposure of dancers, perception of dancers by the society, strong division amongst dancers, absence of standardized structures to help push the economic value of dance, literacy level to mention a few and it is a reflection of our larger society. “We seek to bring everyone together to form and create the future we have all dreamt about for dance in Nigeria where dance can contribute to the national economic GDP.

Adeleye explained that the organization’s strategy to achieve this humongous task of dance prominence and relevance is to leverage on the power of the media through consistent engagement as it hosts projects all year round, quarterly dance seminar and workshop, quarterly dance show at the WAJO monthly venue at Freedom Park, dance exhibition and yearly dance conference. “As part of our effort, a 13-episode dance television show tagged ‘WAJO on TV’ has been produced for airing while waiting to unveil.” He added.

Notable professional dancers present applauded the giant effort of Seun Adeleye, saying that dancing in Nigeria is without a structure and there is an urgent need for dance managers, administrators and producers to step up their game so that dance and dancers should be given its recognition , do their practice, research and performance.