Dance
Get to know the multi-hyphenated London dancer Kieran Lai and find out why he's blowing up on social media, and swapping the stage for the streets.
In the wake of the Red Bull Dance Your Style Challenge we met wildcard dancer Kieran Lai to chat about his career, dance and insights into life.
From YouTube to the studio
Despite the hype that surrounds him, his showmanship and multi-hyphenated skills didn't come from fame. The all-styles dancer is mainly self-taught and began honing his craft via a year's worth of YouTube videos. "I went on holiday as a kid in Hong Kong, where my parents were born, and that's when I took my first street-dance class. As soon as I came back to the UK, I told my friends about it. They suggested I check out these clips on YouTube. I thought what I saw was so cool. In the end, I taught myself for over a year from those clips before I took my second actual real-life class."
Kieran is quick to pay it back to his earliest inspirations, having been influenced significantly by a Korean popper and French popping legend Salah. "At first I'd only seen dance in music videos with Micheal Jackson and Usher and I never gravitated towards it. When I opened YouTube and this popper was doing the robot in a nightclub, and I saw the reactions he was getting, that was the point that made me think like, "Wow, that's what dance can do."
What caught Kieran's attention the most was tutting and learning how to wave and pop. "I can't mention my journey without saying Salah, because he played such a big part in it. The first clip I saw he was in a battle for Juste Debout, and he was doing moves that I'd just never seen before?"
From there, Kieran hit the studio and got work on learning the foundations, but was quickly met with his first and biggest challenge. "I had this really great creativity as a kid because I could visualise things quite well, but by focusing so much on learning the foundations of dance, I feel like I lost a bit of myself. I had to go back on this journey to rediscover what I loved at the very beginning about dance." He reveals.
I feel like I lost a bit of myself. I had to go back on this journey to rediscover what I loved at the very beginning about dance
Inspired to absorb as many styles and culture as he could Kieran began travelling around the world, battling and performing to the places where he still feels the most creatively inspired today, like Japan and LA.
From the studio to the screen
But it wasn't until 2012 that things for Kieran really took off: "That was my watershed year. I'd only been dancing for four or five years when I received my first proper dance job. It was in a teen street dance film in the UK. All of a sudden, later that same year I'm doing a performance with a company called Zoo Youth in front of Michelle Obama and the Royals during London 2012. Then I'm in the semi-finals of Britains Got Talent."
Unsurprisingly, after making it to the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent, Kieran's professional trajectory as a dancer was soaring. However, he took time out to focus on his studies and complete a university degree in marketing.
Back in the swing of things, he followed up a list of television performances and commercials with a series of battle wins and his proudest achievements. "The pinnacle of my battle career happened last year when I did the Dexterity Dance League battle in Tokyo, Japan. I got to the finals, and that was just so satisfying. I've never labelled myself as a popper, or thought I was on the level to be in the finals of battles that were like Juste Debout. So that meant a lot to go that far in categories like abstract down tempo and free spirit."
From the screen to West End
At the top of 2019, Kieran switched lanes by locking down a role in London's brand-new, pop West End musical, And Juliet. While that might sound like a dream job for struggling dancers out there looking to make it, Kieran soon faced the reality of the position. To go from thriving in street culture to dancing in a musical seven nights a week is no easy swap. Dancers are not only rehearsing for months, but they're often turning out the same moves to the same songs like machines doing two shows a day for very little pay.
Fast forward to 2020 and Kieran's stint on the West End was cut short by half a year. Reflecting on the experience, he explains that it wasn't easy to adapt. "This wasn't hip-hop theatre, this was pop musical theatre. This was a world that was using hip-hop elements to enhance their show and make up their overall aesthetic but not vice versa. And as much as I wanted to push hip-hop into that world as a street dancer myself, it didn't sit right. It felt like two worlds colliding, rather than coming together."
When we speak, it's first thing in the morning and Kieran's shooting a commercial for UK retail titan Sports Direct and busy working with prolific street-dance choreographer Shay Latukolan. Despite the early call time, the dancer couldn't sound more hyped to be back immersing himself where it all began. "I'm a lot happier now and doing jobs that push me creatively and feel more in my lane." Kieran beams.
This wasn't hip-hop theatre, this was pop musical theatre. [...] It felt like two worlds colliding, rather than coming together.
However ironically, when you ask him which project he feels the proudest to have been part of Kieran retorts "I grew the most doing And Juliet, especially in ways that I didn't expect. It was tough at times, but that experience affected me so positively in everything that I'm doing now. When you're doing the same show over and over again, you lose aspects like your creativity. But on the plus side, subconsciously you're gaining and improving elements that you're not even realising. I got to experience a new world as well as a part of myself and my dance that I never would have."
Thanks to the West End, Kieran's showmanship, acting and storytelling improved. He fused those with his already impressive portfolio of talents which include a mixture of waving, tutting, animation and elements of grooves like locking, krump and hip-hop.
Flowing between styles and connecting art and business
Kieran's movements are as smooth as they are intense. They're difficult to define, don't fit into buckets like a robot and aren't super-strict to any specific style.
When pressed to sum up his overall dance style, Kieran explains, "I personally like to use the term illusionary dance forms. I basically mix in so much material that I could call myself an 'all-styles' dancer. But the way I want to show my dance is as though I'm doing an illusion. I always want to move in a way that's not real."
Kieran's at a point where he's content with his uniqueness as a dancer. Not to mention his abilities to cross-pollinate his dance across so many platforms and to such a broad audience.
Not only does he have OGs tuning in to hype him online, but he has new-gen dancers glued to their phones, all wanting to carve out their own similar success stories. Offering up some advice, Kieran says, "As a dancer, you can either be a total artist or an artist who can do business. I reckon I'm more the second one, because I choose to use my art in a way that can financially support me as well."
There are plenty of hidden gems and pure creatives within the street-dance community who are slipping under the mainstream radar. "I see dancers who are so crazy talented. They have mad skills, and I used to be like, 'Why are you not bigger?' But now I know it's because they're working so hard on their craft," he explains.
Kieran might have his eye on the business side and have a certain prowess when it comes to finding success beyond the scene, but no matter what, his artistic side will always remain. "My advice for new dancers is don't think like only a dancer because that cuts yourself short in terms of making it a career. Make moves on all the different types of platforms. Try new things. If I only followed my artistic side I wouldn't' be able to sustain myself and keep doing what I love. I'd be a sick dancer, but I wouldn't have any security to play the long game."
Don't think like only a dancer, because that cuts yourself short in terms of making it a career. Make moves on all the different types of platforms
He goes on to illustrate his point: "An excellent example for me are Les Twins. They came from the streets, they rose to the top of the scene, but they're still out here battling harder than before, and they're still getting better and better and better. "
Heading back on set, Kieran closes with this: "I never had the opportunity to make money from dance before. Now that I'm flexing on all these platforms, I am. However, the main thing that's important for me is to circle that money back into my art, and improving and conditioning my dance. I still get so excited about learning skills. Literally the other day I was learning hat tricks from the best hat trickers in the UK. That experience was so much deeper and gave me so much more choice than performing on any stage can."
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