Femi Ginger and Speedope make up the duo of the Xpandables dance group, one of the most popular in South-Western Nigeria. They spoke to ROTIMI IGE about their upcoming dance concert, among other issues. Excerpts.
Who are the Xpandables?
Xpandables is a dance company also known as ‘dance bizness men’, co-owned by two individuals (Onaifo Opeyemi @speedope and Ogunbakin Oluwafemi @femiginger). Both graduated from the prestigious Lead City University in 2012, where Speedope studied Mass Communication and Femiginger studied Economics.
How long has the Xpandables been in existence and what’s the idea behind it. Is it just about dancing?
Xpandables started officially on February 1, 2014 to be precise and ever since it has been God all the way. We were actually in a dance group where we met before forming the group Xpandables (that was the beginning of our story). Truthfully, we were not close at first but you know only God can make the impossible possible and here we are today twinning and it’s been five years.
The Xpandables is not just a dance group; it is a company that has a lot of potential companies established within it’s peculiar activities and services.
What has been your achievements so far?
God has been so awesome to us, because the things that have happened to us in the space of five years were things we thought we would never achieve in 10 years. We have been credited with several awards, some of which include the Best Dance Group of the Year at Ivory Awards (2015), Jkrue Awards (Dance Crew of the Year) Prodigy Awards (Most Expensive Dance Crew), Screams Awards (Best Dance Group), the Most Passionate Dancers at the dance camp hosted by Kaffy in 2015, Eminence Award (2016 Best Dance Group), Ivory Awards (2016 Dance Group of the Year), among others.
We have also won multiple dance competitions as well as the Remy Martins dance kick off in Lagos. In 2014, we were named ambassadors for the R.C.C.G youths, nationwide and also won the Yudala zero gravity dance competition.
We have been in and out of Nigeria for multiple shows, church ministrations, competitions which include Seyi Law’s ‘Fast and Funny’, Etisalat EasyClique Fest, Power Oil exhibitions, Yudala zero gravity concert, Access Mavin concert, Nescafe African tour, Felabration, Lagos, Winsconsin University, Ghana and numerous others.
Have you worked with musicians?
The Xpandables have featured in music videos of both local and national artistes like Olamide (Don’t stop), Skales (Lole and Mujo), Dj Enimoney featuring Olamide (Oya Dab), Fabulous Pizzy (Sabali) , Posly TD (Lori titi), Artquake (Farabale), Sheun Natural (Body Perfect), Oyinkanade (Oyin), Tolu (Project Fame) to mention a few.
Social media exposures?
Instagram has also been a helpful channel in promoting our talent. We have posted several dance routines to a number of songs from known artistes which were reposted by many artistes like 2baba, Olamide, Skales, Sean Tizzle, Maleek Berry, Wande Coal, Mc Galaxy, Mavin Records, Toyin Aimakhu, Tonto Dike etc. We were also given a huge acknowledgement by the legendary rapper, P.Diddy on Instagram
You have an upcoming event next month. Tell us about it.
It is the first scripted dance show from the Xpandables tagged ‘The Xpandables Dance Fest’ and themed ‘Dance is a Lifestyle’. The main motive for this dance show is to make the world see dance as a way of life. The reason we are having this concert now is because we’ve done various dance classes, workshops, dance camps, tours and we felt the next step was to hold a dance concert.
Expect to see the unexpected, mind blowing performances, crazy dance moves, rib- cracking moments and most importantly, you will get to see us in new form.