Where did the idea for Krump Dance Studios come from?
The idea came from the need to fulfill dreams. I grew up knowing what I wanted to do even as a kid, but I never thought it was possible because of my environment. I wanted to help other people dance. That’s basically my driving force; being able to influence and make change and make dance available for other people. I have my own dreams. I’m still dreaming. I want to establish dance as a profession here in this country. Also, I want to perform.
So you want to be a world-class performer?
Yes, definitely I do. I don’t like confining myself to one single act. Yes, there are parts of me where I have to be solo, but I would love to perform with my team as well. I love theater. That’s where the idea of the Grease production came from. I love everything about dance theater. I don’t want to call it Broadway because we’re not on Broadway, but Broadway is a term that is used to describe that type of production. I’m passionate about telling stories with dance.
Where did you get your dance training?
It started off by what we can say ‘the streets’, from one dance team to another, and also on my own. I wouldn’t say that I knew that I was training myself at the time. As I grew up and I decided that I wanted to pursue dance, I started connecting with dancers in workshops. As I did, I began to learn myself.
Can you tell us more about the street training?
When I was a kid I had a dance clique. We would just meet in different people’s houses. When I got to secondary school it was the same thing. We would train and rehearse. We also had idols. I was also part of the Redeemed, that was gospel. I also got to choreograph a lot. I don’t think there was any town I went to where I didn’t meet dance lovers.
So do you refer to yourself as a professional dancer?
Yes I do because I’m paid to dance, but I still try to obtain other levels. I’m not just thinking about Nigeria, I’m thinking about the world so we’re trying to see how dancers here can connect with world-class dancers and follow the ropes. We have lay people, we have raw dancers and amateur dancers and they get here and are not sure how dance works. We organize workshops for them to learn. Some of the instructors that I work with are coming from Lagos and they’re always trained in different levels.
Who are your dance idols?
Well, MC Hammer used to be one of them but there are so many of them now. There are many that have inspired me. I’d say Mia Michaels, she’s not just a dancer, she’s actually a choreographer. I’d say Popin’ Pete. He’s one of the pioneers of hip-hop. I love Cirque du Soleil as well. Pop artists like Usher was someone I really looked up to at a point in time. Right now, someone I definitely like when it comes to dancing is Chris Brown. It’s not that he is so fantastic but I know he’s really passionate about dance. He has that connection. You can see someone who is passionate about dance. You can tell.
What about the Nigerian pop artists?
I like P-Square’s choreographer. I think his personal work is actually awesome. But I wouldn’t say I connect with Nigerian artists. There are some parts of their performances that I don’t agree with. Some of them are too vulgar. If it’s not vulgar or seductive, it’s not popular. I don’t think Nigerian artists challenge their creativity.
How many dance instructors do you have at Krump Dance Studios?
I have nine instructors here. Three of them are part time and the rest of them are full-time. They’ve been trained at different levels. Some of them have gone to the schools here like Corporate Dance World and Mobile Dance Academy in Jos. Most of them have competed in competitions like Maltina Dance All. We have a lot of creative people who have been trained in Latin, salsa, contemporary and hip-hop. For the life of a dancer, training never stops because it’s creativity. You might learn the principles but you have to keep on learning. So, we’re all training and we’re dancers at the same time. We’ve been doing training on a very casual level for a while, but we actually just started a faculty for training using a curriculum.
Last year, Krump Dance Studios presented the musical dance production, Grease Naija Mix. What were the challenges of putting that on?
It was something that was new. I had challenges to get the dancers to understand what we were doing. On one side they enjoyed what they were doing, but we had to train them. We had to do auditions and they came and didn’t know what they were doing. They’re all raw. It was quite a challenge and we weren’t able to sell the vision to the people. We didn’t have financiers. They were interested and thought it was exciting but they wanted to see us pull it off. You know, probably because it was new and it was dance and live, so they weren’t sure if it was a viable production. Will people come? Have you done this before? It was challenging but I think it was worth it. Because of that, we had to improvise with costuming. We had to also work with time. We funded the production ourselves.
What advice would you offer to people here in Abuja who are not sure where to start?
I’d say come to the studio, as training is inevitable. You have to train as a dancer. It’s not just a gift so go to anywhere you can to train, but come here to start with.
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