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After the staging
of Jimbay’s dance production, ‘Tears in the Rain’ on March 12, NEXT got
to talk with Anthony Edet Offiong, one of the choreographers and the
man behind the show.

When and where did you learn dance?

I started dancing
[professionally] 13 years ago. I learnt it at the National Theatre. At
some point in my life, I was a science student but I have always loved
the Arts. When I was unable to continue with formal education due to
lack of funds, I went into Dance fully.

What form of dance are you into?

I do all kinds of
dance. I started as a traditional dancer, then I went into hip-hop and
contemporary dance. Now you could say my style is more of
traditional/contemporary. I also do Latin dance.

What else do you do?

I do a little bit of stand-up comedy and I anchor shows.

What is Jimbay all about?

Jimbay
International Services is not only for Dance. We do consultancy,
research and documentation, mostly in the arts. It is run by five young
artistes: Abdul Kazeem Adeowolu, Babs Ademoye, Folake Cole, Ugo Obiayo
and me. We have been friends for a long time before we came together
last year to form this company.

What inspired ‘Tears in the Rain’?

‘Tears in the Rain’
is based on different experiences that we as young artists are facing.
All the stories you heard (during the performance) are things that we
have all gone through as dancers and we are saying that enough is
enough when it comes to dance. As dancers, we are not respected. People
think that the only thing we do is come on the screen and shaky our
booty in one music video or the other. People are not interested in
attending dance productions except when it is a part of a stage play.
It was hard to get sponsorship for this particular production. We (the
production crew) had to dip our hands into our own pockets to finance
it. And then we did not change a gate fee as we wanted people to come
and see what they have refused to sponsor. The irony is that now we are
getting praised by the audience.

Who choreographed the dances?

I and Uche Onah
were in charge of the choreography but the rest of the cast were also
allowed to bring in their own originality especially in the individual
performances. Uche and I just streamlined everything in the direction
that we wanted.

How far do you intend to take the production?

I want to take it on tour to universities.

Do you have adequate sponsorship for that?

No, I don’t. And I
am begging people, members of the public, corporate and individual
sponsors, to get involved and not let this dream die. The individuals
that took part in this are not taking a kobo back by way of
compensation. Everybody just came out to do it because we love what we
do.