Conversations with Baptista Kawa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Baptista Kawa.

Hi Baptista, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo by my widowed grandmother – along with my brother and quite a few of my cousins. She supported us through bootlegging and lots of love. We had a television and I would watch movies like Step Up and StreetDance over and over again. I was a shy little boy and spent many hours alone in the field near our home teaching myself how to flip and sneaking into my classroom after school to practice the dance moves I saw in the movies.

Members of Street Dancers Company, the top Afro-Fusion dance company in DRC, did a cypher in the street and asked if anyone wanted to show off their skills. I was 14 years old and I jumped in the middle of the circle and that moment changed my life.

I’ve been supporting myself as a professional dancer for about ten years and I’m now a member of the Street Dancers Company. With the company, I’ve done shows all over East Africa (DRCongo, Rwanda, and Uganda) and performed with major recording artists like Akon, Rudeboy, and INNOSS’B. I regularly compete in Hip- Hop, Krump, and Breakdance battles, twelve of which I’ve won.

This year I’ve done residencies with dance companies in Togo and Uganda where I’ve collaborated on pieces that are already scheduled to perform in Europe in 2022.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve done breakdance cypers with four of the Red Bull BC One All-Stars (Bboy Junior, Bboy Lilou, Bboy Shigekix, and Bgirl Logistx). I’ve also taught them all traditional Congolese ndombolo dance. Teaching dance classes is something I’ve done for many years. I feel like it’s important to share the joy of dance and self-expression with both adults and the younger generation.

During the pandemic, things changed a lot in the dance world and everything moved online. That gave me the opportunity to start connecting with companies, choreographers and dancers from all over the world in a way that never would have happened otherwise.

I’ve found that the dance community is incredibly supportive and I’ve had the opportunity to build relationships with choreographers in Los Angeles like Tyce Diorio, Brian Friedman, John Carrafa, and Mesha Kussman from Aqualillies. I’ve been working on my 0-1 visa for almost a year and they’ve all helped me with that process. I’m so excited because I have jobs in Los Angeles ready for me to begin as soon as I get there and I’m going to be working with the bloc Agency all because of the relationships I’ve built.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In my country access to professional training and high-paid performance jobs is extremely limited. We are all mostly self-taught and didn’t have the financial ability to rent rehearsal space so we practiced outdoors on concrete and I built an area for flipping with large tires and wood shavings to make the landing softer. We have about four months of a rainy season and it would make rehearsing much harder because we practiced outdoors.

I had to save up for a long time to afford a cell phone so I could have internet access to research music and dance clips of other artists so I could teach myself moves and then be able to put my own spin on them.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a professional dancer. My style is a unique mix of breakdance power moves and footwork, flip combinations, Contemporary and traditional Congolese Ndombolo.

You can see my reels here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uZ_5PqrVi4G5z5p1I0vZkN6Q4rvEtZ6Q?usp=sharing

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I’m really proud to represent my country as a dancer to the rest of the world. People don’t often think of Africa when they think of dance but there’s a lot of talented artists that haven’t been given the same opportunities as people from other parts of the world. I’m really looking forward to all that awaits me in Los Angeles.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baptista1234kawa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Baptistakawabathy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ60jI7mp2oRfRUIPZgEgiA