I had no clue that I could move in the way I do. It has been easier also thinking about what Nii Armah said, “It’s not what you have, but how you feel about it.” That idea has changed the way I think about so many things: my schoolwork, my family issues, my relationships with others, and mostly, how I think about myself.
M.S.

I quickly realized that Nii Armah is incomparable to any of the African dance teachers I had encountered in the U.S. or in Ghana. In fact, I have never encountered another teacher in any discipline who so thoroughly challenges a student’s entire being. He asks students to enter into new cultural territory – a place where connection with fellow human beings is a priority, a place where respect and humility are vital, and a place where awareness and self-reflection foster personal growth. Nii Armah deliberately integrates these African cultural values into his classroom, illuminating how we can improve our quality of life and the health of our communities.
M.H.

There would be days that I would come to class either exhausted, sick or frustrated and by the end of class with him, I would feel rejuvenated both physically and emotionally. I feel that the way I interact with other people has been forever changed by my experience with Nii Armah. I have learned that putting a wall between yourself and others, no matter how hard of a day you are having, can only make you feel worse. He taught me that when you reach out to others, you will always be amazed at how many people will be there for you. It is these concepts of living that truly changes someone’s life…
J.S.

The experience I had in Nii Armah’s class is a result of his dedication to every individual’s education. As a teacher, he leads an incredibly challenging class, both physically and mentally. Yet, he invests his heart into the growth and development of...
L.M.

What we have created in class reminds me that when we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.
L.M.

It is a great release of emotions that might otherwise emerge as guilt, depression, anger, and drugs. Oh, also, I have a better eye for what I want and do not want. African dance gives me a better feeling than any drug, I do not want to do them because it is fake. I have only sipped alcohol since I started African dance.
B.H.

African dance has enabled me to accept and appreciate my body. Daily I am inundated by images of what a woman in American society should look like and act like. African dance helped me to find the beauty in my own body and also gave me a means to express physically what I am feeling emotionally.
K.F.

I want to let you know I am grateful to have you as a teacher. Your class has brought so much joy into my life. I am a yoga teacher and am always trying to make connections. Your class is a gift; when I encourage my students to push through the limitations of the mind I sometimes talk about my experiences with your class, and the need to reach out without fear but rather in celebration and playfulness.
B.C.

I’ve met a sagacious Ghanaian dance professor at the University of Colorado named Nii Armah Sowah. He has opened the eyes of many wealthy, uptight white American college students to the possibilities of a therapeutic, truly supportive community. He does this through movement and song in his African dance and singing classes. Most therapy in the US, especially of the Freudian persuasion, finds most success by focusing greatly on the individual. We often think about our growth, development, and change simply in the context of our own personal sphere. But in many areas of the African continent, traditional therapy has its emphasis on the community instead. For me, the effects of this change of focus have been immensely fulfilling.
C.C.

By getting dancers and singers out of their heads, and focusing on the beauty of group cultivation, Nii Armah teaches important human skills. I myself have learned selflessness, openness, responsibility, love, tolerance, compassion, confidence, emotional strength, physical strength, humor, how to be supportive, how to seek support, how to connect with the earth, how to connect with my fellow man…the list goes on. Nii Armah’s spirit and enthusiasm for the human potential are just the antidote to our technology and materialism driven isolation from one another.
C.C.

I took African dance last spring, and I’ll agree - it was a transformative experience. For me, African dance helped me “unlearn” the American mentality where the individual is always wondering how he or she is being perceived, and to learn the (much more refreshing, vital, and illuminating) mentality of how to receive others in community. African dance got me to step out of myself, out of my head and into the world where we just exist together. It’s a joyful, juicy place.
J.F.

Nii Armah reminded us (often) that Africa is a continent not a country, and challenged us to re-think our own cultural baggage. If, when he walked into the classroom of African Dance students we weren’t talking to one another- he would remind us “Talk! Talk to your community!”
And even if we couldn’t get a step or a move- to do it anyway and do it “juicy” (with flair, with joy!). Nii Armah Sowah’s classes should be a prerequisite for EVERY student, EVERY where. It’s about dance, yes- but not dance as westerners know it. It’s about so much more.
S.M.