Sample Space

A dance group aims to bridge Afrobeats and Bollywood / Arts

- SHAISTHA KHAN

While scrolling through dance videos on Instagram and TikTok, one is likely to find some rendition of the gwara gwara—an Afrobeats dance step. Featuring a synchronous swing of the shoulder and knee, the move was first created by the South African artist DJ Bongz and popularised by Rihanna’s performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards and Childish Gambino’s music video for “This is America.” In January this year, AfroDesi, an Indian dance group, collaborated with The Rabbit Dancing Crew, from Ghana, to perform the gwara gwara to a medley of “Afghan Jalebi,” a song from the 2019 Bollywood film Phantom, and “Lifuende,” a song by the Ivorian musician Serge Beynaud.

Founded by the Tanzania-born dancer Aakash Phulwani in 2018, AfroDesi combines Afrobeats with Bollywood to create a unique genre. It runs dance classes in Mumbai, London, Dubai and Dar es Salaam. With cultural literacy—educating dancers on where the moves originate, who created them and what their influences were—at the forefront of its creative process, the group offers people an opportunity to expand their horizons.

Afrobeats is a loose term for contemporary West African pop music, and the style builds on the legacy of the Afrobeat genre. Pioneered by the Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Kuti in the late 1960s, Afrobeat is a fusion of jazz and music from sub-Saharan Africa that was born out of Kuti’s activism, including his call for pan-African unity.