‘How we emerged 2nd in Korea-pop dance competition’

Elevatorz: Elevatorz is a dance crew that has long survived the hedge of dance involvement. We are a dance crew that do dancing professionally and we instruct as individuals to do different art of dance. Once a while, we bring music to the scene but we have not decided to make it stand firm yet.WM: […]

Elevatorz: Elevatorz is a dance crew that has long survived the hedge of dance involvement. We are a dance crew that do dancing professionally and we instruct as individuals to do different art of dance. Once a while, we bring music to the scene but we have not decided to make it stand firm yet.
WM: When did you start the crew?
Elevatorz: It started in 2009, but initially it wasn’t known as the Elevatorz, it was just a youth crew in secondary school. When we started professionally, we increased in number from   three to seven, though one of us is in Benin Republic now still running an Elevatorz there. We have the lead dancer Samson, and the rest of us are Michael, Green, Kelvin, Moses, Godregg and Brian.
WM: So many groups have come up only to split later. Do you see that happening to your crew?
Elevatorz: Splitting is expected though, but we don’t expect it to come up. We are just striving to get to the peak and we don’t see splitting coming up because the bond between us is too strong.
WM: When you to go for a performance, how do you agree to the steps you use?
Elevatorz: We are talented so that makes our steps unique. When we talk talent that means you have it in you. We will just say God brought us together because when we dance with other people, apart from our crew, we don’t learn any moves from them instead they learn our moves. When we are together we find it very easy, at some moments we play over things and from it with we come out with steps. We might be listening to music and someone will just come up with a step and if it is good we take the step and gradually we come up with a routine.
WM: Has your crew performed only in Nigeria?
Elevatorz: Basically, the only country we have performed in is South Korea, but we have always performed in Nigeria. There was this competition that came up in Nigeria known as Korean Pop Competition and we won it and were picked to represent Nigeria in South Korea. We were the only African dancers to be in South Korea in 2012.  So, that gave us the opportunity to represent Africa not just Nigeria. We were the first Africans to compete in the K-pop event and we came second in the competition though it was tough because Koreans are dancers but the good thing is that we came second. Since then the affiliation between Nigeria and Korea started and we started using Korean cultural centre as our rehearsal ground.
WM: Aside dancing, do you have passion for other things?
Elevatorz: A couple of us have other things doing; Kelvin is a professional footballer and Samson is an athlete, Green is a basketballer though he doesn’t have the height for it and few of us love doing music. Michael and Samson are opera singers and they are brothers; Samson is older than Michael. We joined the choir from childhood, so it is in us now, it is not like a profession thing, and it’s something we have a passion for. Dancing can make you look younger than your age.
WM: How do you cope working with the Koreans?
Elevatorz: It has been an awesome experience with them. They organise Korean classes for us, which we enroll   in once a year, but they understand English so we do most of our communication in English.
WM: What are your major challenges?
Elevatorz: Majorly, fund is our greatest challenge. When we started it wasn’t like this, we just felt that this is a step higher from where we were. We started from nothing without enough funds to push up this career. In entertainment you need funds for support. We have so many concepts coming up but to pull them through we need funds. It has been hectic for us but we have something coming in to keep us in a comfortable step.
WM: Do you see dance coming to overtake music in the entertainment industry?
Elevatorz: People feel music is what entertainment is all about but we are planning to take dance far in the industry. This is where entrepreneurship comes in; if you have the mind-set of an entrepreneur you can do something with anything. When you are innovative that is when you can come up with something good; you cannot just come up and be a star because you will drop the same way you came up. And that is the same thing with dance; for sustenance to be in place you must be innovative. We are creative not just in our dance steps but also business wise. We are coming up with something very big by the end of this year or early next year, which is our next project. We are not just into dance we are all in school doing one programme or the other, which is what we need the most. People see you doing your dance career they just have this feeling that you are not a serious minded person because of some dancers who are wayward.
WM: Do you see dancing bringing different ethnicities together?
Elevatorz: Beyond our localities in national places, it has started already.  There is this battle which comes up every year and Nigeria has been in full participation that has been bounding us together. Because we get to mix up with people from other countries and it has boosted our relationship with other countries politically. What K-pop are doing now is another way of connecting Nigeria with Korea because they are looking for a way to affiliate Nigeria with them and this is one way they are doing it. They also have in place agriculture, technology and arts but now dance has come into it. There is also Hip-hop international Nigeria, which is also involved in it; so there are so many dance competitions Nigerians are getting themselves involve in.
WM: What advice do you have for young people out there?
Elevatorz: First of all be sure you want to do what you are going into because nothing good comes easy. The risk, the yelling from parents, and also criticisms, are also part of what you must make up your mind to face. And if you want to be a dancer much risk is involved because it will get to a point where things would stop working, just be sure of yourself. And to parents, whatever your children want to become support them, stop discouraging them because it is what they have passion that’s what will work out for them.