New National Star newspaper learnt that the road to the finals of the National Breakdance Championship has been mapped out as nine breakdancers has danced their way to the grand finale slated for November this year.
At the final stage of the qualifiers rounded off in Lagos State recently at the Alliance Francaise office in Ikoyi, nine breakdancers comprising of four girls and five boys picked their tickets and will join 23 other finalists from Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna for the finals in a couple of months.
The breakdance competition is an initiative of FAME Foundation in conjunction with the French Embassy in Nigeria.
According to the Executive Director of FAME Foundation, Aderonke Ogunleye Bello, the break dancing initiative started last year November and is aimed at empowering Nigerian youths through sports by using break dancing.
“We are using breakdance to empower the youths. We have been campaigning against drugs, we say no to rape and several social vices. So, breakdance is here to empower the youths. As they are breakdancing, they are sending messages to other youths against thuggery, rape and other vices,” she explained.
“It is a new sport in the Olympics and we have to embrace it and create the awareness in Nigeria that dancing is now sports.
“At Fame Foundation we have an initiative called ‘Play it, Dream it’, where we use sports as a tool for development, we have used football, handball and Yoga. Now we are using break dance because it captures a certain part of the society that the youths love to follow, we have been doing it for sports followers, now it is for dancers and their fans.
Meanwhile, two winners from the grand finale will represent Nigeria at an international breakdance championship in France with other consolation prizes for the runner-up -Aderonke concluded.