Her childhood dream was to tour the world as a dancer. Unfortunately, life happened to her. Better put, her Nigerian parents’ ideal dreams happened to her.
She was born in Calabar, 103km from the People’s Paradise. Her parents were legendary Igbos and totally sold out to the masculine ideology. She always lived in the shadows of her brothers. Below is a brief version of our conversation.
Throughout this article, We will refer to her as Kelly. Growing up, Kelly was a fan of Dance Moms, an unscripted reality Television Drama that featured mothers and their daughters involved in a dance-competitive arena. Think of it as a Big Brother Naija, except here; folks just dance. Unfortunately, the show was closed down because of Abby Lee Miller’s (Abby Lee Miller is like the Big Brother of the show) racist comments to participants on the show.
She told me that Dance Mum was one of her inspirations back then. Hopping from one Facebook page to another, always catching up with the show. Kelly saw herself on the show someday, but the thought did not hold water in her heart. It was like looking for a needle in the ocean.
After several months of dancing to herself in her mirror, she got a lifetime opportunity to participate in a dance audition in the US. “My friend, Deborah, who was also a dancer, had an aunty in the US who was a dance tutor. Deborah’s sister once recorded us dancing on her phone and sent the video to her aunty. She did not tell me she would send it; the dance sef na freestyle. After several months, she finally watched it and decided to pay for our audition ticket at a dance competition in Arizona. Omoo that was supposed to be my gerrout-of-naija card.”
The way Kelly sounded, she felt she was ready for it. All the hours she had poured into practising her steps would finally be rewarded. Kelly rushed home to tell her mum that she would be going to America to dance. “My mother thought I was mad or something was wrong with me. It made no sense to her. She told me that no child of hers would ever become a dancer.”
Kelly picked up her broken dreams and waited for her Dad to return from work. “I tried to talk to my Dad about it, but during those times he always got angry, shouting at everybody. Only my eldest brother could confront him; they usually had nasty arguments. I killed the thought and decided to move on with life. I was just 12, but I knew what a broken heart felt like. The crazy thing is that Deborah came third in the competition and went on to win a scholarship. She’s currently abroad at the moment. Omoo, life tough o
Today, Kelly is a nursing student at the University of Calabar, studying Nursing and playing an active role in AIESEC in Nigeria. She dances occasionally, but her steps have lost their shine.
As we grow up, have our own families, and have children, we must endeavour to support them regardless of how unorthodox their passion might seem. It is easy to say that there is a Kelly in almost every home, limiting herself, losing touch with her reality, and following the crowd, because her world is too busy for her. Besides, you might just be another Kelly, who knows?
