“I am very good with the computer. Technology fascinates me. Dance however, is my greater passion. The intricacies and simplicities of dance and music are what encompass my life. When I am dancing, I am in my element. I started dancing when I was seven years old and I knew that I wanted to dance professionally when I was sixteen.

“Unfortunately for me, my older siblings set the academics bar quite high and my parents would hear none of it.

This is how I found myself at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology studying for a degree in IT. IT is challenging and demanding and the thrill of hacking the hard projects kept me glued for a while. I was happy at my first job in IT after graduation in 2011. I loved the responsibility of having a job and a salary at the end of the month.

The monotony of the work however caught up with me after just 10 months.

“I had no plan when I handed in my resignation letter. I seemed lost. My family was struggling to understand me.

A little depressed and with nothing to do all day at home, I sought refuge in my church, The Nairobi Baptist Church. I would go to church every day not to pray, but to dance by myself.

Soon, I was dancing with two other young people in church and we would sometimes be invited to schools.

NEEDED TO EARN MONEY

While I was happy dancing, I needed to earn money to get by.

“In 2012, I joined a dance company in Nairobi. My first assignment at my new job was teaching children dance at an international school. It was terrifying.

I was worried that I wouldn’t have anything to teach these children with backgrounds so different from mine. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that all that children need to warm up to you is to show them love.

When they are happy, they show it, they will come up and hug you. Over the course of that year, I passed them my skills while they taught me patience and forgiveness.

“Perhaps because my happiness and fulfilment radiated, my career choice slowly stopped becoming an issue with my family.

We stopped fighting about it.  A year into my dance job, I started feeling like I needed more space to grow. When I quit my job to go solo, my older sister sat me down to discuss my plan and how to change what I was doing from a job to a business.

“I am an introvert and the biggest challenge has been getting out of my comfort zone and putting myself out there. Now that I was no longer under my employer’s wing, I had no choice. I started out taking very small jobs which would pay even a thousand shillings. I figured that these may not bring in the big bucks but they did get my name out there.

My first big job was from a lady I had taught dance who wanted a ballet teacher for her daughter and a few other young girls. This was at the start of 2014.

“Everything I know about dance I learnt from watching videos and other choreographers at work. I choreograph all forms of dance ranging from ballet and contemporary dance to hip hop.

One would imagine that it is the old hands who are the best teachers but I’ve found that I learn best from the younger ones. They are the ones who come with new things.

HITTING ROCK BOTTOM 

“2014 was a good year for me. I got several schools on board and I was doing a dance concert every other month. The best part of it was seeing my family at these concerts. Then, just as the little pieces were falling back together, my mother passed away in September. Losing her just when she had embraced my career was devastating.

This thought was the very thing that snapped me back to work after three months of not working. I decided that instead of sitting at home depressed, it was best to honor her with dance. I came back with renewed energy.

“It hasn’t been easy but given a chance to make a career decision again, I would still pursue dance. I see a new generation of dancers who are impatient, wanting to get things done now. It has taken me five years to build my brand. I now work with other institutions including the Kenya Dance Academy. I’m extremely content.

I had no one to hold my hand while I worked at getting here, I hope that I will be able to mentor young people in the near future.”

HOW SHE DID IT:

• For her, dance isn’t just about skill. It is also about character.
• The thrill of having crowds of people watching you dance can make you vain. She has strived to stay grounded.
• She kept her eye on the bigger picture.