Zee World’s reality TV dance competition, Dance Naija Dance, has made its debut on DStv and GOtv.
Dance Naija Dance, a show coined from the fusion of Nigerian and Indian cultures, aims at revealing the best dance crew in Nigeria. Presented by a blend of Nollywood and Bollywood personalities and dancers, the show is reputed as the first original indigenous content of Zee World in Nigeria These stars include the hosts, Hero Daniels and Pelumi Buari; choreographers/mentors, Sashin Kandhai and Kenneth Agabata; while Kunle Remi and Uraysha Ramrachia will be the judges. The reality show will run for 10 weeks, every Saturday and Sunday at 7pm on Zee World on DStv channel 166 and GOtv channel 125.
According to ZEE Africa’s CEO (Africa & Indian Ocean Islands), Somnath Malakar, winners will receive a cash prize of N5 million and goodie bags from all sponsoring brands. The winning group will smile home with N2.5 million, the runners-up with N1.5 million while solo winner gets N1 million.
Somnath Malakar told Saturday Sun: “Nigerians love to dance, they love Bollywood, and we feel that if we can make a fusion of that, it will be well embraced. As the biggest market in Africa for Zee, we owe it to our Nigerian fans to always dish out what brings them happiness. This fusion of both cultures in entertainment will further expose Nigerian acts to a global community of over one billion people that enjoy Bollywood. Zee just started local production in Africa, so all the faces that we see today in Nigeria and in countries in Sub-Sahara Africa will be seen in India or international productions, because we will take them to more than 60 countries in the world.”
On his part, Dance Naija Dance presenter, Hero Daniels said, “One unique thing about the dance show is that it’s not for the fun of it; it is a tool to address certain societal issues, which the dancers must interpret the theme for each episode and pass the message via entertaining dance steps to the viewers. In the shooting process, I learnt that we have so many similarities, much more than one can even imagine, between the Indian and Nigerian cultures. It was exciting getting to learn new words, dance moves, and new things about the Indian culture, and we are also using the opportunity to teach Nigerian culture.”
