Jeny Bonsenge, a woman from Molenbeek who was invited to The Ellen Show to dance with her 9-year-old student Anaé after a video of them went viral, will start giving classes of afro dance after the number of requests she has gotten after the performance.
The video of Bonsenge and Anaé dancing was made at the opening of Bonsenge's new dancing studio in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, AfroHouse Belgium, three weeks ago. British princess Meghan Markle sent it to Ellen DeGeneres, after which she invited the duo on her show. The video was reposted by artists Timbaland and Ciara and went viral on the internet.
During The Ellen Show, the dancers performed the dance they did in the video and received $10,000 (about €9,000) each.
Bonsenge will start giving classes of afro dance for children in her new dancing studio after she received tons of messages after her performance on Ellen.
"I have been filming us dancing together for a while, but this video put a lot in motion. People think our videos are nice because of the diversity," Bonsenge said to Bruzz.
"It has been my dream to open my own dance school for a long time. When suddenly I got that invitation from Ellen DeGeneres after our video went viral, and suddenly I got more money to run the school. That is, of course, an amazing start," she said.
"Afro dance is a very cultural thing, but I open it to everyone. People with African roots, but also Moroccan people, Belgians, Italians and Asians follow my class. I love the mix," she added.
With the money that Bonsenge received from Ellen, she will further develop her studio, but a part will go to her Dance4Kids aid project, with which she helps children in Kinshasa and Portugal.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
