Beats in the streets: World Dance Academy building community through African dance
The World Dance Academy brings global rhythms to Copenhagen, during Copenhagen Street Days with a Culture Clash dance battle to celebrate different cultures.
“A battle is not about winning, it’s about exchanging and communicating with the body, the soul and the music” says Mikala Hoff Skovgaard, leader of Global Kidz and World Dance Academy.
World Dance Academy hosted a Culture Clash battle, showcasing how dance can bridge cultures and empower youth worldwide, on Sunday 7.
Skovgaard says that the crowd and dancers are very diverse. "It's not about having African roots”, she says “Everyone is welcome.”
The academy frequently invites people from different countries to participate, either as dancers, judges, or dance teachers.
An international community
World Dance academy also cooperates with different sister organizations like E-flex in Ghana. Michael Sarpong also known as E-flex is an internationally recognized dancer and choreographer from Accra.
Sarpong says “I used to be a school drop-out but thank God dance found me and gave me life. I try to use dance as a tool to make people know there is a future”.
Through his project, he has built a dance studio that supports children in school, with food and giving them a safe place to sleep.
Sarpong now travels the world sharing his love for dance and learning from others, with the goal of bringing knowledge and opportunity back home to Ghana.
One of the core visions of World Dance Academy is to help people connect with their own cultural roots, and to encourage them to share those roots with others.
