A group of Nigerian street children have been transformed into celebrities thanks to a viral dance video that attracted the attention of singer Rihanna and supermodel Naomi Campbell.
The “Dream Catchers” were seen in a video earlier this year dancing like double-jointed puppets in front of a battered red bus.
Not long ago, the six boys and six girls aged six to 16 had no idea about choreography. Now they’re dancing in the video of Nigerian singer Amada’s homage to the country’s Super Eagles, who are playing in the World Cup football finals in Russia.
“What we’ve done this year is huge. We have gone very, very far,” said Seyi Oluyole, 26, the group’s dance teacher and tutor. In early March, she posted the latest video of her smiling prodigies on the Dream Catchers’ Instagram page, wiggling along to an Afrobeat tune from popstar Wizkid. The Internet lit up when Rihanna and P. Diddy shared the clip on their own accounts and it was seen more than 2.8 million times.
Several weeks later, Naomi Campbell, in Lagos for the annual fashion week in April, visited the young dancers in Ikorodu, a poor suburb on the outskirts of the megacity.
The Dream Catchers have been hot property ever since, whether it’s to collaborate with other performers or to receive prizes.
The governor of Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode, invited some of them on stage for world children’s day on May 27. Ms. Oluyole founded the dance troupe four years ago to help street children in Lagos dream of a better future and to find their way back into school.
