Page 51 - LionKing

With a passion nurtured from the age of 6, Kaffy’s art was intro- duced to the world after she
danced 55hours and 40minutes into the hearts of Nigerians and a Guinness a world record in 2006. 13 years later, Kaffy is still one of the biggest names in Dance across Africa. We sat with Kaffy to discuss how dance still plays an important part in her lifestyle.
I’d say Dance found me. Since childhood, as far back as I can remember, I have always been excited about music, art, anything that has to do with coordination and movement. Even with the march- past parades in school during inter-house sports, I was always leading the pack
and helping my house to win. So, I am always excited about anything that has
cipline of the art and the control it allows your body to have and the healing effect of martial art. I also love to swim as well,
I love to play basketball as well although
I haven’t done that in a while, but when I do, I go IN. I also enjoy stretching. I can go for hours and hours of stretching.
Zumba, Jazzercise, pole dancing are dif- ferent ways dance is being incorporated into fitness, what does your style entail?
My style of dance or fitness is “IJODA”. I created Ijoda when I realized there is a brand out there for African workout pro- grammes using the African movement culture as a platform for the coordination and routines. Our music has become vast and our movements have not been tapped into, as much as it’s available
to us. Looking at the Nigerian culture for instance, take southern Nigeria alone, the number of movements available can-
not be fully explored even in a hundred years, then look at the whole of Africa. So, I believe there are enough movement and coordination styles on the continent to be used for workout programmes and they all have amazing benefits for the body. If you ask people to exercise, they get bored easily but they enjoy Zumba because it is dance-based and it is Latin dance, so I thought why can’t we have our own African dance-based pro- gramme, why can’t we all have ijoda? Ijoda has a double meaning; in Yoruba
it means “where is the dance” and also “dance is good” because truly dance is good for the body.
Dance is now a vital part of your life- style,13 years down the line, what has changed about Kaffy?
I would say I have grown in my capacity as a business woman, I have grown in my capacity with relating with people in the industry, my vision has expanded beyond where is started from. I have seen and overcome a lot of challenges to shed new skin and this has allowed me realize how much more commitment, rugged- ness, diligence, hard work is required to be a business mogul. It’s not by mouth, it’s not easy, but when you are commit- ted and persistent, disciplined and fight against all resistance then you are defi- nitely bound for success.
You have 2 beautiful children, and you have maintained your “abs of steel”. Understanding the struggle women face to “snap back” after having children, how
I will continue to evolve. I have evolved from “ just being a dancer to a choreographer to a creative director. Now I am an entrepreneur running three businesses, and a foundation.
You came into limelight in 2006 when you won the Guinness World Record for the “Longest Dance Party” after dancing for over 55 hours. What motivated you to sign up for the event and dance for so long? Well, in one short sentence, my motiva- tion was basically patriotism. When Mr Ben Bruce called me to ask how long I can dance for, he also mentioned he needed something to put Nigeria in the good light. It wasn’t until a year after they got us signed up for it and he asked me to help coordinate it. The idea was to audition people through the marathon
to ensure we were getting the right fit. When I got to the place of the marathon, I found out that a lot of athletes that the dancers could not even compete against were present, and that got them a bit discouraged. I reassured them that the objective was to get 120 people to com- plete the race and not about who won the race, so I decided to join the race
to encourage them my team (of about 12 dancers from my school then). I regis- tered, picked up a number and somehow from coordinating, assisting and encour- aging, I ended up in one of the groups and that is how I got in a group that finally won. The motivation for finishing it and following through was patriotism. I just kept thinking “it’s for the country, it’s for Nigeria” seeing as I am a very strong patriot and very Pro-Nigeria.
How did you get into Dance?
to do with coordination, music, or flow or rhythm. I’d say primary school was where it was really cultivated, Chrisland school, at the time, was quite pro-art and I joined almost all the cultural troops that were available irrespective of ethnicity. I never planned to pursue it as a career until the university level.
You have not stopped dancing since 2006, do you plan to retire?
There is no retirement in art, there is evo- lution. I would continue to evolve. I have evolved from just being a dancer to a choreographer to a creative director. Now I am an entrepreneur running three businesses, and a foundation. I won’t be on stage forever, but I will continue to
be in the business of dance, exploring options for service provision, the enterpris- ing and trade and commerce lane. We are going to be in the stock market very soon by God’s grace (chuckles) but I plan to build a fortune 500 company off of
the back of dancing. From the way I see dance, it’s beyond just movement, that is why I’m going to evolve and last longer.
Apart from dance, what other activity do you engage in to maintain your phy- sique?
I used to be a martial artist and recent-
ly I’ve started trying to get back into it because I really miss it because of the dis-
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