Dancing as an art form has always been expressive. And the West African dance craze “Azonto” certainly conveys a message – albeit more directly than other dances.

What is azonto?

Azonto is the popular dance for a Ghanaian and West African fast beat music genre. It can sometimes be used as a rude reference to wayward girls. Azonto’s music and dance surged in popularity in mid-2011 when it was the first dance moves in Ghana to gain much international flavor. Basically, the dance movements usually involve hand gestures with the aim of conveying a message.

Finding its roots in the coastal areas of Ghana, the Azonto dance has garnered considerable attention in its own right. The Azonto tutorial video on YouTube has been viewed nearly 600,000 times. Club scenes from Paris to Amsterdam feature this addictive dance. The US Army took video of their soldiers doing the dance. For his single “Fine China,” Chris Brown incorporates some of the most famous moves into his music video (although he mistakenly credits Nigeria as the beginning of the dance). It’s definitely going to be big. It’s been around for a while but was recently used by Fuse ODG, a Ghana-born Brit, in his song “Azonto” and Iyanya – a Nigerian musician who used it in one of his tracks, Kukere, which became one of the songs popularized best selling tracks in Africa.

The Azonto dance seems fairly easy to some but difficult to others. It embraces Africa in a manner similar to most African dances. involve lots of squats and hip swings. This may be why it comes naturally to most Africans. One of the most fun and important elements is to either represent a person’s livelihood or convey a direct message during the dance. This may undoubtedly be one of the reasons why the dance was so interesting and popular.

To show what the dancer’s job is, Azonto makes use of movements associated with the particular profession. For example, a photographer could imitate taking a picture with a camera while dancing. A carpenter might pretend to hammer a nail into a wall. Or a basketball player might incorporate dribbling, passing, and shooting into his moves. The variations of the Azonto dance are thus almost unlimited and any type of profession can be represented in an infinite number of ways.

Then there’s Azonto’s other communication tool; it can be used to say practically anything. If you’re dialing imaginary numbers on the palm of your hand and then holding an imaginary phone to your ear while keeping an eye on a lady, you can say, “I want to call you. What’s your number?” or the message could be encrypted by you pull the collar of your shirt and then point to the door and say, “It’s hot in here. Do you want to go outside for some fresh air?” The only rule is that the movements used to convey the message Have to be fun and rhythmic.

Incredibly, the dance has even made its way into Ghana’s churches. The religious actually practice an adapted version of Azonto called “Chrizonto”, short for “Christ’s Azonto”. Piesie Esther, one of Ghana’s top gospel artists, is the main proponent of Chrizonto and even organizes a special prayer service at Osu Presbyterian Church. There, members of their faithful communicate messages of Christian love through gestures such as heart cupping and offering to other churchgoers.

Still religious, but perhaps more morbidly, the dance was even used in some of Ghana’s funeral processions to honor the dead. In a YouTube video of one such ceremony, dancers with a coffin on their shoulders, still in keeping with Azonto’s upbeat and joyous pace, move side by side and point upwards as if instructing the deceased, toward heaven to go.

What sets Azonto apart from other dance passions?Like the Macarena, the Gangnam Style, and the Harlem Shake, the sensation seems to have true staying power. Despite the fact that the Azonto dance explosion began in the early ’90s, the dance continues to grow in popularity to this day. New music tailored to Azonto is produced at least once a week.

It seems Azonto is here to stay.