Kusum Gboo Drums roared as the drummers hit them hard with dexterity and energy. The thick audience at the Alliance Francaise in Accra last Saturday hollered as various dancers wowed them with sizzling body-shaking performances. The occasion was the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Kusum Gboo Dance Ensemble.

Each member of the rainbow crowd, comprising Africans and Europeans, was visibly moved by the power-packed drumming, singing and dancing as some of them jumped onto the concrete stage to dance to the kicking rhythms that flowed from the xylophones, bamboo flutes, atumpan (talking drums) and other indigenous African instruments.

It was obvious that after the six-hour classic traditional dance concert, the hot bodies of the performers were covered with enough sweat that aptly depicted the exciting and vigorous nature of African traditional drumming and dancing.

The performers were drawn from the top dance troupe in the country including the Okotobrigya Cultural Troupe, Hewale Sounds, Odehe Dance Ensemble, and Agorsor Music. The celebrants, Kusum Gboo put the icing on the cake with several dances from the African continent. Their performance of dingi dingi from Uganda was a masterpiece.

The Guest of Honour, Captain Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (Rtd), Member of Parliament for Berekum and Acting Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, who is himself an actor, was so moved by the show that he called for weekly staging of tradition concert in various parts of the country.

The President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Alhaji Sidiku Buari, who is also the Vice President of the International Federation of Musicians, charged performing artistes in the country to take 2005 ?as a serious year for you to bring back live band music which is the only way to express ourselves as professionals?.

The General Secretary of the Ghana Dance Association, J.O. Adotey challenged the 300 performing cultural troupes in the country to strive to improve upon their standards and move forward.

Kusum Gboo (tradition never dies) Dance Ensemble formally known as the People?s Cultural Troupe, was formed in 1979 by a group of young and talented young men and women, led by Thomas Tei Agbetorsu in Kotobabi, a suburb of Accra.

It has now become an international group under the leadership of Richard Danquah who has guided Kusum Gboo to several countries in the world.