SayRahChips: Dancing Her Way to Fame

By Ferdinand Ekechukwu

Sarah Olaniran, stage name SayRahChips, has been a dancer right from childhood. Everybody in her obscure Iyana Isashi locale in Okokomaiko, Lagos then knows her for that. So she grew up taking on the art of dancing. Now fast-forward to recent time. When ‘SayRah’ as she’s fondly called by her over 450,000 seething fans isn’t dancing, teaching, or touring the world with stars like Davido, Wizkid, Chris Brown, Tiwa Savage, Mr. Eazi and the likes, she’s whipping up a feast in the kitchen, engaged in some TV shows or being a creative director.

She bears an inspiring story, having made a career out of her passion for dance. The extraordinary dancer, choreographer, movement & fitness coach has taken the international web by storm with her multifaceted dance videos and signature looks, and has fast become a force to reckon with in the Afro dance scene. With over a decade experience to her name across many prestigious platforms, SayRah recently set Lagos and Abuja on fire with her #RahDanceInvasion dance classes on the 21st and 22nd of August, at Oriental Hotel Lagos, and Bodyline Studio Wuse2, Abuja.

A Dance graduate of Columbia College, Chicago, she recently launched her own multi-dimensional business empire which covers beauty, fitness, and swimwear called RahNation. Mentored by renowned Nigerian dance coach and choreographer, Kaffy, Sarah would later honed her craft at (SPAN – Society for the Performing Arts of Nigeria) where she was certified in Latin, Ballroom, Ballet, Nigerian traditional dance, Jazz, HipHop, Salsa and Contemporary dance. Modern dance, Ballet en pointe, improv, and Traditional West African dance added to her dance skills while studying in Chicago.

On a recent Thursday morning in Lagos, ‘SayRah’ shared her story to a select group of arts/entertainment journalists and music artiste consultants. “I have been dancing since I was like four years old. I found love of dance from doing cultural dance in nursery and primary school. My dad use to love and watch the dancers dance and I loved to like impress my dad”, she narrates.

SayRah continues: “I also had an elder sister Dupe who used to dance at the time. She would copy stuff from TV like Aliyah, Sisquo, all the American artistes that we had dancing, like Michael Jackson, in their videos and everything she did I wanted to do. So I would like also learn the TV and learn from her. Basically that’s where my love for dance started. It grew as I got older. And then I lost my dad in 2008. Prior to that the year before that, 2007, we were watching Maltina Dance Hall competition and my dad was like ‘why don’t you guys tell me about this we could have gone. . .’

“And we were like ‘oh we didn’t know you would want to do that!’ And he was like ‘let’s go next year’. So unfortunately he died before the auditions. But my mum was like ‘your dad wanted to go for this so let’s all go’. And we (family) went for the Maltina Dance Hall auditions for 2008. My sister got in; she was the representative. My uncle had to represent my dad. I think we came 5th in that year and it was fun and great and basically that was where I realized you can actually study dance. And that’s when I realized that there are other forms of dancing, like specific forms. And my whole brain just exploded. I was like yes!

“So yeah after that, I finished secondary school and then I went to SPAN (Society for the Performing Arts of Nigeria) where I started studying dance for two years. And then around that time, my mum was like ‘okay you have to go to university. I understand that you want to keep dancing but you have to go to university’. Then I did my research, found a school in Chicago offering degree in dance. I did a whole power point to like convince my mum and then she was like ‘it’s your passion, it’s something you would love to do, something that you are really good at as long as you are going to get a degree out of it I will support you.’

“Of which I’m really grateful for because where we are from that’s not normal; it’s not normal for parents to support you dancing. It’s not their thing. If it’s not Kaffy (the dancer) it’s like what are you doing? Of which Kaffy also has been part of my journey. She also trained me while I was still in Nigeria. I worked with her for like two years. So, yes, basically that’s how I ended up going to Columbia College, Chicago. And I studied dance for four years. And after that I have been touring, teaching afrobeat and afro dance classes all over the US.”