This is our friend Yan, better known by our Ghanaian friends as "the White James Brown" for his akpadza skills. In this pic you can clearly see the chicken-like nature of the dance.
Let it be known that we have publicly preformed the Akpadza not once, not twice, but thrice times this week. Thursday Chad came home and informed me that we were going to a party. A party? Yes, a party! Over the non-existent road to Dzita there is a resort owned by a yevu. Its name is Meet Me There. He invited us and other volunteers in the area to dinner and some good old fashion fun! When we got there we were stoked to hear that we were all given rooms on the house. Wahoo! Dinner was amazing and I know its shocking, but no beans!
Ghanaians always carry hankies to wipe their brows. They also make handy props for dancing. Here you can see me thoroughly working a borrowed hanky.
Directly after dinner the band got together and the drums and maracas began, along with the singing and the Akpadza! We danced like crazy and attempted the Akpadza for hours. Man. These people can really dance, and I am ashamed to say that because of us, they will forever consider white people to have no rhythm and no moves. To sum it up, it was a pretty rad party and we all enjoyed the little break!
Saturday we went to a nearby island to visit our German friends who are building a health center. Our Ghanaian friend Siva gave us a tour of the remote place. He also had the children (who followed us around because yevu’s are rare) sing and dance for us. These kids can move! After a long time of watching the children dance the German’s cook Elorm decided it was our turn. She led the kids in a song and pulled Chad, Abbey, Yan, Malta, and I in to preform for the crowd. They didn’t laugh much, but I saw an adult in the distance mimic us, and I don’t think she was complimenting.
I wonder if we are getting better at this crazy, ghetto chicken winged dance. I sure hope so because Sunday, this Akpadza happy church goer grabbed Chad and I and challenged us to a dance off. She was absolutely pleased that she got us to dance but I cant say that she was impressed with our moves. Maybe next week during donations we will give her a run for her money.
Apkadza from Chad Skeers on Vimeo.
(Almost) Everybody is getting down.
Excellent show, children.
I think you really need to swing that Skeers bootie and then you’ll have this dance perfected. When I was in Tahiti the men danced with their knees out and kind of a chicken look but it involved their knees swinging in and out. I’m sure with a little more practice you will be dancing like natives.
Haha yeah we had a bit of a dance party last night. (It was girl’s night + Chad) And Bridget taught us a little more of the Akpadza. I also taught her some robotronic moves and she’s a natural. It’s hilarious when they look to us to learn some moves because they’re way, way better at dancing than us bu for some reason assume that we are the authority. It’s good to be white I guess? Word never reached Bridget and her friends that white people can’t dance.
You keep working that chicken dance, Chad. When you come back you’re going to have to teach it to the rest of us.
I’ll have plenty of time to perfect it that’s for sure… and I’ll be glad to share my valuable skillz. I’m more interested in picking up the crazy krumping moves those kids are doing at the beginning of the video. Damn those kids can move.