Former Big Brother Nigeria housemate, Anthony Effiong, popularly known as ThinTallTony says he is set to host a dance concert aimed at promoting the growth of dance.
Effiong made this known in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the concert, which is aimed at contributing to the growth of dance as a profession would hold on Oct. 8.
He said that the project was one of the few he had embarked on since he left the reality show, adding that he had also featured in a few movie productions.
Effiong, who recently starred in the movie ‘Celebrity Marriage’ alongside Tonto Dikeh and Jackie Appiah is also shooting two short films.
The dancer decried the way at which dancers in the country were relegated to the background.
“They are only used for music videos to dance; but as a profession it has not been fully embraced in Nigeria unlike other forms of entertainment.
“Musicians need dance to make their shows interesting, they need dancers also in their videos but we have been relegated so much to that role alone.
“We have not been given much recognition and are usually restricted to music videos and as backup dancers for musicians which is not done in other countries.
“This is because people tend to forget that dance is a genre on its own. We have a couple of dance concerts in Nigeria but they are not mainly about dance,’’ he said.
Effiong said he studied dance in Vienna, Austria through a UNESCO scholarship in 2005 and he had not been able to express his full potential, hence the need for the concert.
He said that although he had had two dance productions, he still wanted to do more, considering the state of dance in the country.
“I have worked with choreographers who handled Madonna, Christiana Aguilera and others. There are lots of people in my archive.
“Coming back home, I am supposed to dance around a brand and express myself fully as a dancer.
“We want people to be able to see what we can do and commercialise us not just in music videos but as brands just like the actors.
“Dancers need to come out and show people what they can do so the younger ones out there can use that as a platform to ride.
“This is to show that we are not just social dancers and we can as well have a good show that people can pay, sit down and watch,” he said.
NAN reports that ThinTallTony had lots of negative publicity immediately after he left the reality show due to his romantic involvements with fellow housemate Bisola Aiyeola because of his status as a married man.
Effiong said that he did not pay any attention to the negativity as human beings tend to use little negative events to wipe out all the good deeds of a person.
He also expressed his desire to try out reality television shows again, saying he loved healthy competition and was intrigued by the shows.
He advised future housemates to know what they would wanted to use the platform for before going into it.
According him, this will help them properly utilise the fame and not be left clueless when they get it. (NAN)