Youth taking part in the Odi dance[photo/karibu.mambozuri.com]It is the new dance craze in town, Odi Dance. Young people want it recognized as the national dance. The magic behind this new sensation is professional dancer James Owidhi, but many know him as Timeless Noel.
This is Noel’s 10th year as a professional dancer, and definitely his most successful one. “I did not expect the dance move to be a national sensation. In fact, Odi is a slang word for ordinary. I started the ODI Dance challenge to promote and explore the various dance styles in Kenya. Today, if you search ‘Odi’ on YouTube, it will bring about one million results.
One of the videos is a compilation made by dancers who participated in the challenge. The other is a professional video of the song Odi. Other versions are mostly done by our fans, especially in schools,” says Noel.
He is a Business Administration graduate from the University of Nairobi where he joined in 2007. “The dance crews that were more popular at that time were FBI and Al-Qaeda. I wanted to join FBI, but most of the dancers were high scholars.
Together with other dance enthusiasts at a campus, we founded a group called Air Force,” he recalls. Air Force, Noel says, participated in Chaguo la Teeniez competition in 2008 and Sakata in 2010. This is where they caught the eye of musician Wyre.
“We performed with him in his Kode Dance song. The group also became official dancers in his She Say Dat remix with Ce’Cile. Noel graduated in 2010. “My father coerced me to study commerce and even got me a job in a bank after my graduation, but I felt out of place in the corporate world and quit after only three months of working,” he says.