Africa's Top Ivy League Dancers: Brains, Beauty, and Moves

Founded by four undergraduate first-year students, Ebe Inegbenebor, Latifah Oduola-Owoo, Sandra Tsikor, and Toshe Ayo-Ariyo, at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in the fall Semester of 2013. West African Vibe (WAVe) performs more modern and contemporary forms of African music in an effort to contribute to the Penn community's perspective of African culture. We perform to Afrobeat, Afropop, Afrohiphop and Afro R&B artists such as Sarkodie, Iyanya, Awilo Longomba, DJ Flex and many others from across the continent of Africa (with a main focus on Western Africa).

On campus we bring about a spirit of family, community and entertainment for not only African students but also all members of the diaspora who are interested in the African culture. We have garnered immense support from the Black community, from students, the Penn African Student Association, UMOJA, Makuu (the Black cultural center), and the Africana Department. Even with all this support we are not funded by the University of Pennsylvania so it goes to show how hard we have worked to get to where we are.

As children of the African diaspora education has always taken the main stage in our lives. But now we have worked our way up to the Ivy League and it is time to express ourselves and heritage through our dancing. We aim to be role models for the young African girls who love to dance but must also keep most of their focus on education. We are here to let them know it is possible to excel in the classroom and on the dancefloor.

The music video below features our choreography to DJ Tjaey’s Afro remix of Look Like You. This piece was choreographed by Tochukwu Awachie, Amanda Agyapong, and Sidia Mustapha. It was filmed by Amanda Agyapong and Andrea Dongmo-Zebaze; also directed and edited by Amanda Agyapong.

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