Dance
Petition for Kida the Great to be renamed Kida the Greatest
Get to know Cali hip-hop dancer Kida The Great and find out how the Red Bull Dance Your Style Challenge judge has achieved superstar status.
Despite being just 18 years old, Kida The Great is already seen as the best dancer to ever emerge from the hip-hop scene. While this label may seem premature, his success in Hollywood and trajectory to the top more than back it up. And with Kida being known to excite crowds live and in front of screens of all sizes, he's exactly the right person to judge the Red Bull Dance Your Style Challenge on TikTok.
Over the past decade, Kida has made moves in the industry, gained a global fanbase and earned levels of respect – from the underground to the mainstream – that most dancers don't accumulate in a lifetime.
Kida the Great
© Kida the Great
"I see exactly how everybody is looking at me, but when people say 'you're one of the top dancers in the world' it's still so funny because it feels so regular, you know? I'm having fun with it. I'm just doing what I love and have been doing my whole life," Kida reflects.
After all, the Sacramento dancer has been honing his skills since he was just four years old, with a pacifier still in his mouth and practising alongside his older brother.
Born to entertain, it didn't take Kida long to master everything his brother could teach him and make the jump from performing in the living room to taking centre stage.
It was never about competition; it was just pure love for dance
"No matter what house we were living at as kids we always had mirrors in the living room. It was like a tradition to take the mirrors out of all the bedrooms, put them up and just dance for hours. It was never about competition; it was just pure love for dance. And it didn't matter where we were at," Kida laughs.
Dancing in a grocery store took him to the studio
After being spotted dancing in a grocery store, he and his family were offered dance classes in exchange for his mother, who is a multi-skilled dancer in her own right, cleaning the studio. "This young lady came up to my mom and said, 'I want your kids to be on my team'. Everyone knows that to be able to dance at a studio you have to pay, but she saw something in us that she said 'no charge.' We could take classes if my mom helped for however long we wanted."
Far beyond his years from the start and insanely quick at picking up choreography, Kida joined his first hip-hop crew at six years of age. Not only was he the youngest, but he was performing alongside comparative veterans aged 18 to 21. He then appeared in the video for rapper and Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar's politically charged and critically acclaimed record Alright at 11 years old.
Kida was then handed the chance to star in music videos with Chris Brown before gaining attention and clout on Sacramento's battle scene. Still only 13, he started to be noticed around the world as he went up against the likes of famed dance duo Les Twins.
Most would have been happy to flex on that, but Kida was determined to kick down the doors. Not only did he want to see how far he could take hip-hop in the dance world, but he wanted to evolve his style and push himself as well. He says: "My biggest challenge, honestly, was me tapping out of my comfort zone. I was so stuck in the hip-hop world. I love hip-hop, but that's all I knew back then. I knew that if I wanted to break that barrier and find so-called 'fame' as a dancer, I had to put myself on to other things and grow outside of only that."
Off the back of training eight hours a day in everything from African Jazz to Ballroom, overcoming injuries and at one point even having to be hooked up to an IV in order to perform, Kida won the prestigious American television dance competition So You Think You Can Dance in 2013. Looking back, he explains: "The moment I won the show was one of the most amazing, rollercoaster moments of my life so far. When you look at the legacy of dancers who've won you know those are definitely the greats, so I knew at that point, I was destined to be here."
What's up with Kida's kitchen?
Kida's fame blew up at an incalculable rate. His razor-sharp footwork, musical flow and syncopated choreography not only saw him surpass his peers to become one of the best dancers on the planet, but rack up 4.3m Instagram followers along the way. And much of that happened while dancing with his friends in his kitchen.
"My family ended up moving to this house and when I saw the kitchen I was like 'damn, this might be the perfect spot to dance'. I had no idea it was going to become as big as it did," Kida blushes. "We ended up filming the first video to a Chris Brown song called Tempo the same day I moved in and it went viral, with a million views. I don't know what it was, but the vibe in that kitchen brought something different out of me. Soon we got like 500,000, 600,000 then up to two million views a day. Today I think we've done about 1000 dances in that kitchen."
Off the back of Kida's kitchen, the dancer's phone never stopped ringing. From high profile music industry execs and artists to brands with glossy sponsorship deals – everyone was vying for the chance to link up and collaborate.
Getting to hit the stage with one of my favourite artists, it just doesn't get better than that. It blew my mind
Choreographing for Justin Bieber and dancing for Migos
Soon Kida locked down a job as choreographer for Justin Bieber and ticked off another ambition. "One of my other big goals was to become a creative director and see my work on the big screen. So I would say my biggest achievement was being able to choreograph for Justin Bieber. In the end, not only did I have creative control as the choreographer, but I had full control of the outfits, camera shots and locations. So that video not only became my first break but was also my chance to show the world that a 17-year-old could do things like that." Kida proclaims.
With his hype building to fever-pitch, Kida was then offered the chance of a lifetime to work alongside his favourite group. "I'd worked with a lot of my biggest artistic inspirations. I'd done so much up to that point, that it was like 'what can beat dancing with Kendrick Lamar and choreographing one of Justin Bieber's videos?'. But anybody who knows me, knows that my favourite group of all time is Migos. I know every song word for word. So when I got a call from the Migos team to say they wanted me to perform with Offset, I was like, 'Damn, this is all I'll ask for now. I don't have to work with anybody else'. Honestly, getting to hit the stage with one of my favourite artists, it just doesn't get better than that. It blew my mind."
Combine all of the above and it's easy to forget that Kida is part of the new generation of dancers. "I'm in a place now where I feel like a veteran. I've done dance videos on Instagram; I've done TV, I've done battles, competitions and music videos. I feel like an OG. It would be easy to sit back and chill, like what else can I do? But honestly, I'm still a student," he admits. "I still have so much to learn; I'm still taking classes and soaking up knowledge like a sponge so that I can push myself to new levels and evolve more and more."
Follow in Kida's footsteps
Dedicated to elevating aspiring dancers around him, Kida adds: "There's so much going on right now in the world that if you want to make it as a dancer, it's going to seem hard at first. If you come from a small place like Sacramento, where I did, then you're already starting out with not much to build on. If you don't have the money to travel to conventions and battles, a plane ticket to Hollywood or dancing for some famous rapper is going to seem impossible. It can seem like nothing can come from dance, but that's not true."
Lighting up, he excitedly goes on. "If it's your dream and your destiny to be a dancer, then all you need to do is fight for it and never ever stop. Don't let anybody tell you anything and don't wait for anything. There's so much knowledge, inspiration, music, history and access out there now on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. So find your platform and tap into that whatever way works best for you."
Don't let nobody tell you anything and don't wait for anything
As for making a name for yourself like Kida did, the dancer wraps things up by saying: "If you want to be a better dancer or make it, honestly, turn on music and just dance. It starts off with that. I've done that every day of my life. I've spent every day just looking at myself in the mirror, dancing in my house and trying to improve, perfect and refine the way I groove – from animation to the tiniest movements. I might not have any challenges at the moment, but I know I will soon. I know that where the future is concerned, there's something that I haven't tapped into yet, so the next thing is to explore and discover that."
If you think you're the next Kida and have what it takes to impress the already legendary dancer, join the Red Bull Dance Your Style Challenge.
