"I started dancing way back when I was a young boy. I just loved dancing so much and it became something I thought I could really do well at in life. I was first inspired to really pursue my dream and learn to dance when watching Michael Jackson dancing to Thriller on TV when I was about 10 - I just wanted to give it a try, but without the Galaxy Dance Project, I could only learn from copying people on TV like Michael Jackson and Usher. This was the beginning of my journey.
My first performance was at school - I danced in a way no one had seen live before, but everyone loved it! Standing in front of people and performing for them made me feel so proud and strong and brave, and made me love dancing even more. I just wanted to dance and get better and better.
Breakdancing was recognised on the streets. I just wanted to dance so started dancing on the streets too, but started to recognise the negative culture that surrounded the dancing - drugs, illegal activity and more - and was labelled as the "dance for gangsters and life-failures" which I just knew full well that it wasn't. I knew what I was doing could bring a positive change to the community, I knew the idleness of the youth on the streets and the kids growing up without a positive path in life could really benefit, but this was all just a pipedream. I wanted to make a change, but I didn't know how, all I knew was I'd need some help if I was to get anywhere with what at this moment in time, was just a dream.
I decided to join the church in 2005. This is where I met Alex Heskey, Poppin' Brian and Poppin' Sticky. Alex had a huge heart and a lot of love for the youths from the street and orphanages - Alex had lived in an orphanage and knew that he wanted to make a change too. So we decided to bring some of the street kids to the church and started to dance. But this wasn't welcomed by some of the Church members, who thought it brought a bad name to the Church, so although we fought, we decided it would be better to stand on our own two feet and give these kids something more than we had grown up with - This is when Alex came up with the idea of the Galaxy Dance Project, Uganda.
After meeting with two more Bboy's, Bboy Fic and Bboy Tudde, we became 5, a strong group who had a common goal - to bring dancing to the youth of Uganda and share our positive energy across Kampala, giving the street kids and orphans a place to meet, learn, teach and grow. A place they could get support and join a family of Bboy's and Bgirls, poppers and other hiphop dancers.
Since then, the Galaxy Dance project has moved from strength to strength and we just keep growing, with support from around Uganda and the world, running free dance training and performance events, and really supporting those with a passion for dance. We hope the GDP will continue to grow and really spread a positive change in our community and throughout the hiphop world."
