Dancer, Lisa Naa Quama Darko, affectionately called Lisa Quama has explained why she decided to venture into dancing although her parents are financially buoyant enough to cater for her needs.
She said in an interview on Joy Prime’s Changes show that, she has her personal ambitions and did not want to depend solely on her parents for support, adding that she wanted to work and earn money by herself to avoid being a ‘spoiled child.’
“My parents worked for their money so, I didn’t want to be that spoilt child; I really loved to dance and didn’t want to be punished,” she told Roselyn Felli.
According to her, money was not her primary aim at the beginning because dance was less valued at the time.
However, she preferred to join her colleagues in performing at events without being paid.
She was passionate about it and did not bother her parents with her dancing prowess because she was academically good. So, she put in effort to excel in all examinations to make her parents happy.
“I was more of a hustler. Forget my parents. I mean, we’re okay. I didn’t want to bother them with this dancing thing because I was smart in school. So they understood the fact that I was getting good grades so I could do whatever I wanted to do because I was getting the grades for them and I could do the dance for myself.”
The dancer saved her school ‘chop money’ to pay for dance lessons during vacations, allowing her to nurture and improve her dexterity.
She was also determined to buy a car for her mother from the savings she made once her activities started generating income.
She made sacrifices by wearing the same clothes repeatedly to prove her worth to her parents, which she eventually did, even though her mum already had a car.
“I didn’t think about myself and used to save a lot. I said it jokingly that I would use this thing to buy a car for my mum. So whenever I got money, I would divide it into three; some for tithe, my savings account, and the one for the car.”
