LaDy ReaLz comes to Zambia

Okay. It’s official. After this weekend, I’m absolutely convinced that living in Lusaka is the greatest place to live in the history of the world. Now, don’t get me wrong. All of your respective cities have their appeal. However, as far as I knoe, absolutely none of them have been the location of the most epic international dance battle of all time.


There were about twenty million things that made this Saturday afternoon event phenomenal, but I’d just like to list six.
1.) From what I gather, three American dancers named Rampage, Outlaw, and LaDy ReaLz (correct capitalization of name edited after visiting her beyond words awesome myspace space) were flown to Zambia with the intention of creating some improved Zambia-US dance relations (cause, I mean, things were getting pretty testy…) over the course of a week.
2.) All of this goodwill would culminate in a three hour dance battle in some random basketball arena. For those unfamiliar with the concept of a ‘battle’, you should visualize two people taking turns trying to demonstrate their dancing superiority and then allowing the roar of the crowd decide who was superior.
3.) Wilmer Valderamma was in attendance. Okay, this isn’t true. But seriously, can you imagine a more perfect life moment than seeing Wilmer Valderamma be the emcee for a US-Zambia dance battle?
4.) The free event was sponsered by the U.S. embassy. I found this to be incredibly awesome for no other reason than it meant that the crowd was a delicate mix between early 20-something Zambians and 50 year old married American couples who could not have looked more awkward or out of place if they tried.
5.) Of the three American dancers brought here, one of them was awful. I mean, absolutely horrific. I spent like half of the event just astounded by the idea that she would be the representative chosen. (Was there a tryout for this international relations event? If so, who judged the tryouts?) Yeah, I’m calling you out LaDy ReaLz.
6.) Uhm. Seriously. There was a dance battle featuring American dancers in Zambia. It was like my own personal live viewing of UPN’s Dance360. Just an incredible combination of surealness and unintentional comedy (and, to be fair, there actually was some good dancing as well).