00:04Millions of views, thousands of comments, but what it takes to get there is rarely seen.
00:10You know, their mind is very, very broad. If you think you'll lose, you'll lose.
00:13So I entered this dance team with a whole mindset of winning.
00:18And it has been great. I've never lost any single thing. I don't think I'm losing in this journey.
00:23But behind the viral moment is a question many young Africans are still trying to answer.
00:29But not everyone saw it that way.
00:31As a parent and a mom of Lisa, I am not really worried about her not succeeding in dancing.
00:40Because there are other things. If this one should fail, the other will not fail.
00:45Those who used to dance used to dress in such a way that they exposed almost all their bodies.
00:52So parents were not giving their kids the chance for them to dance.
00:57But Lisa is part of a new generation changing that perception.
01:02The way Lisa dances and her dressing. Parents now motivate their kids to go into dancing.
01:10Lisa Kwama is a professional dancer and choreographer. And she is the first Ghanaian female dancer to be verified on
01:16TikTok.
01:17For her, dance is freedom.
01:20Through dance, I've been able to do amazing things with Nike, with Adidas, with Beyonce.
01:26We're an international dance artist. Dance has taken me to places I have never imagined.
01:32Behind the videos is a community of dancers training, competing and pushing each other forward.
01:38Lisa is part of Dance with Purple's Academy, who in Ghana mixed traditional African movements with modern sounds like Afrobeat.
01:48Being a part of DGP Academy, I would say, is the foundation of who I am today.
01:53It gave me a culture, how to speak, how to talk, how to dress, how to present myself in public,
02:00and even how I post my dance videos.
02:02It's basically where I learned how to dance. Aside dance being a talent, it framed the dance to make it
02:08sellable.
02:09As dance in Ghana grows, the industry is still catching up.
02:13We don't even have dance studios in Ghana. We use gyms. Dance is big everywhere else, but not in Africa.
02:20And if Ghana can see the vision and translate it into something big, other African countries will follow.
02:26I mean, we are the gateway of Africa. So, yeah.
02:29Lisa's journey is no longer just about herself.
02:33She is now mentoring Abigail, a hearing impaired dancer, discovering her voice through movement.
02:39Meet Lisa.
02:41Anytime I dance, I feel so happy, especially when I became a winner of a kids' competition program.
02:48People became happy for me. Lisa was also happy for me. That's why I choose to continue dancing.
02:54Anytime I dance with Lisa, I feel happy. And when it's made, Lisa attends to me. She also buys me
03:03food, sneakers and other things. That's why I am excited to dance with Lisa. I really love Lisa so, so
03:11much.
03:11I really love Lisa.
03:12Lisa is currently working on a documentary that captures her journey through dance. A way of showing others that this
03:20path, though uncertain, is possible.
03:23I feel like I'm a mentor to most people. And one question that they keep asking me is, how did
03:28I do it? And I feel like doing the documentary will just make it better for everyone to understand and
03:34also push forward to achieve their goals.
03:36So, in this documentary, it's going to expose the struggles. It's going to expose the good times. It's going to
03:41expose the journey, basically. Because what I've gone through, I'm sure everybody has gone through it. But why is it
03:48that I am the one succeeding?
03:50Lisa didn't just follow a path. She's helping create one.
03:53Yeah.
Comments