Nana (on the right) and Ingrid. Photo SBS6.

Nana in finals Dancing Queen

Saturday March 29, Nana will appear in the finals of Dancing Queen, the search for the most talented female dancer of the Netherlands.

Last summer, Nana Appiah (25) graduated from the Rotterdam Dance Academy (RDA) as a dance teacher. Beginning the present academic year she is a teacher at the RDA. Het dance partner in Dancing Queen, Louis, is also a RDA alumnus.

For the Dancing Queen tv shows, out of 3.400 candidates the jury selected 15 talents. Since the beginning of February, they compete in a weekly elimination race to become one of the the two finalists. Next Saturday Nana's opponent is Ingrid (24). The live show starts at 20:00 at SBS6.

Nana teaching at the Rotterdam Dance Academy.
Photo Konrad Szymanski.

A few parts from an interview with Nana (and her brother Tonto, who is a RDA student) in Codarts Magazine of November 2006. Nana was a fourth-year student at the time:

‘As a young girl, I took ballet lessons,’ says Nana. ‘When I was 11, I started doing street dance, and then I studied marital arts.’ Nana first encountered modern dance at the Jeugdtheaterschool Hofplein in Rotterdam. ‘I really liked that. Ever since then, I knew that I wanted to go further with dance.’ She did auditions everywhere she could, and that produced results. ‘From the time I was 17, I worked for three years full-time in all types of theatrical productions, among other, from the SKVR, Danswerkplaats Amsterdam, and DOX.’

She was doing what she wanted to do, but she is critical, and Nana thought that she needed to improve her technique. ‘And I thought: there has to be more; and I want to know it all and be able to do it.’ She decided to attend the Rotterdam Dance Academy (RDA). How did she end up here? Nana laughs: ‘Tonto was a student at the Havo voor Muziek en Dans, the preparatory programme of the RDA and the Rotterdam Conservatoire, which is located in the same building. He told me what I needed to know about the RDA, for example that technique receives a lot of emphasis.’

Nana is more interested in jazz than in modern dance. ‘I want power and action. And pieces where women are equal to men. In a duet, a woman should lift a man now and then.’ She already performs regularly on stage, says Nana. ‘I recently danced in a theatre tour with the singer Hind; twenty shows of two to two and a half hours per evening. And every weekend, I dance in a half-hour show somewhere in the country.’ Sometimes it makes her life a bit like a ‘mad house’, because she is also teaching a variety of classes. ‘But I really like it. When I’ve finished studying, I will definitely continue to teach. I like to teach people, and I enjoy seeing people working with the material I’ve prepared.’