A Conversation With Oskar Odiakosa

31 Aug

Editor Annie Lu interviews Oskar Odiakosa, a British Amateur Latin dancer & dance teacher, shortly after attending The TIRED Movement’s “Racial Representation in Ballroom” webinar on August 4. The TIRED Movement’s mission is to improve racial equality and representation in the dance industry. Oskar is a TIRED Advisory Board Member and was a moderator for the webinar discussion . In addition, he is a semi-finalist of the 2022 UK Closed Championships and the first black man to be sponsored by International Dance Shoes. Recently, Oskar has been featured as part of the BBC One documentary “Blackpool’s Dance Fever” which aired on August 29 and is still available for streaming.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with this talented dancer who is bringing real change to important issues within Ballroom!

Audio file from our chat with Oskar. We strongly encourage readers to follow along by reading our transcript of the interview below for the purposes of clarity. We have also linked important information in the text.

Annie: If you could please introduce yourself and your dance background/dance journey :)

Oskar: I came into dancing quite late, I started dancing when I was about 13 years old. I was doing, what we call in the UK, medalist competitions rather than the open circuit. The reason I got started was because I saw it on TV, liked it, and really wanted to give it a try. Prior to dancing, I was kind of known for doing acting and theatre. What I really liked was the lifts! I thought that was a standard thing that you did in ballroom, so when I went to the classes I asked the teacher “when do we get to do these lifts?” and he said “that’s a completely different style of dancing, you’re in the wrong place” [laughs].

Fortunately, I liked it enough that I knew I wanted to pursue ballroom dancing. But it was very clear to me that this was a type of sport/activity that people like myself didn’t particularly do. One of the things that struck me when I was younger, was how expensive ballroom was. To be able to go to classes each week, I had to save up my pocket money and take two buses there and two buses back. A lot of kids get into ballroom because their parents pushed them into it or they have a family legacy, so they usually have support for lessons, competitions, etc. But for me, it was a really self-directed and self-motivated journey.

Were your parents supportive of your passion?

Initially, I think they were just confused…because ballroom dancing is not something you come across regularly in West-African communities, particularly Nigeria - which is where I’m from. When you’re young, there’s a heavy emphasis on academic achievement, so anything outside of that was considered a distraction. Therefore, I don’t think my parents really got behind the idea of me pursuing ballroom dancing in the beginning. But I think ultimately they wanted me to pursue anything that made me happy. They did want to reinforce the fact that, especially since I was the first child, that I did get my studies under control. So there was always a constant battle between academic achievement and trying to dance and do competitions at the same time.

But now that I am done with university, they kind of just leave me to my own devices. They are quite supportive when I’m dancing competitions because they know I’ve done it for so long now.

I think I have a similar background - Both my parents are Chinese so academic achievement is always at the forefront, and this is more like a “nice hobby” [laughs]

Yeah, exactly. A nice hobby, but not something that they would’ve thought I could make a career out of or be successful in. One of the things I always say is: “You can’t be what you can’t see”. So I think for my parents, especially because it wasn’t clear that there was much achievement for young black people in ballroom dancing at the time, I can understand their reservations about me pursuing this as a career. Whereas for other sports like football, where you can clearly see that there’s a plethora of black talent, it would make more sense in their eyes for a child to pursue those sports.

But I was determined to prove that it is possible and did not want to give up something I felt genuinely passionate about.

Oskar and his partner, Lauren Claydon, dancing at an international competition

Did you see any other black dancers or dancers of colour in the UK when you were growing up?

If I did, they were few and far between. And they’ve stopped dancing now. I remember seeing one really good girl at competitions, her name was Sinead, and I thought “This girl is super talented and deserved to win”. But even though she was always the best in my eyes, there was always something that would stop her from getting what she deserved. Another very talented boy called Tabari, I remember watching him very closely. At the very first amateur competition that I did, my parents saw him and picked him out and said he was very talented.

So there were a few, but they were very few. And for those few, they were very talented. It’s just a shame - If we had more people who are black in the industry, they could’ve been very successful. If there were a larger number of black people in ballroom, those dancers would not have been an outlier to what is typically seen in competitions because of their skin colour.

It’s improved somewhat now, but not to the extent that it could have for the talent that I know is out there. In the time between when I was a junior to now, most if not all of the handful of black dancers that I knew had probably given up ballroom. And I don’t think it’s pure coincidence that they’re all black and decided to hang up their shoes.

Was there any sort of camaraderie between you and the other black dancers that you knew?

Yeah we would see each other at competitions and recognize that we had similar backgrounds but were different from the typical competitors that were there. So you are able to find that sense of community immediately.

I remember speaking to Tabari’s mom, who came up to me and said, “You’re a very nice dancer! We’ve been trying to get through and having been going at it for such a long time, hopefully we’ll get there”.

I knew exactly what she meant without her having to say it, because I could identify. And this was maybe over eight/nine years ago when I was in the Under-21 Competitions. So there was a sense of camaraderie which was nice, but it was just the fact that the community was so small.

It’s not to say that the ballroom community wasn’t welcoming or accepting; they weren’t hostile at all. But I just felt very singled out because I was black – not in a negative way – but just purely because there wasn’t much diversity in the scene. So there was definitely camaraderie when you met other black dancers. You knew that you were two people who were not typical of that sort of scene or event.

It is very visible that there is a distinct lack of representation…That’s something I’ve immediately noticed - I don’t know if other people or if white dancers think about that as much since they are already the “ideal” in the context, per say.

Were there ever any incidents where you or other black dancers were confronted with racism or discrimination? Or achieved lower results directly because of that?

I think it’s more the microaggressions. Comments like: “How did you find this style of dancing?” Or being asked at a competition: “When did you arrive in the country?”. There have been instances where, in the studio, I’ve heard “He’s black, so he probably wouldn’t get it the way we get it” and things like that.

Competitively, I don’t like to think that I’ve been disadvantaged, but I spot trends. When everyone is saying that it’s so close and nobody can really pinpoint what it is that’s stopping you from getting into that next round, despite the fact that you’re dancing as good as everyone else… It boils down to: Human beings are creatures of habit and they’ll go for what they’re used to as opposed to what is different.

As a black dancer, it’s not enough to just be good. You have to prove that you are that exceptional for the judges to have no doubt in their minds to put you through. If it was a choice between someone that the judges were used to seeing and someone that’s different (with dancing ability being equal), they would go for what they’re used to seeing. That has been the trend I’ve noticed.

I’m not saying that the judges are biased or discriminatory, but there is perhaps a bit of unconscious bias. The British Dance Council introduced unconscious bias testing and training for judges. It’s an important step forward to make sure that the environment is a lot more leveled out for people of all different protected characteristics.

On a positive note, everytime I do get into a final, I know that it’s on merit because of the obstacles that I’ve had to overcome.

So although there aren’t instances in competitions where I’ve been overtly discriminated against through racism, it’s much more insidious. I must emphasize that generally speaking, the dance community is very warm and welcoming. But it’s behind a closed door. They aren’t letting people in. Once you are in, it’s fine – but it’s getting people across the threshold that’s the missing link at the moment.

Yes, we definitely talked about some of the barriers to access during the webinar. It’s interesting that you mentioned the British Dance Council’s testing for unconscious bias. I wasn’t aware of that. Is it mentioned on their website?

In order to hold a judging license (don’t quote me on this because I’m not 100% sure), you have to complete an unconscious bias test in order to judge competitions in the UK. I don’t know if it’s on the website, but judges who register for their licenses under the BDC have to do it. I don’t know if it’s a one-time or annual thing, but it’s definitely something that they have to do. When they have a reasonable score, they are granted a license.

I don’t know to what extent the testing really prevents those biases from happening, but I do think it’s an important step forward and it shows an attempt to combat biases that may arise in judging. “Judge without fear or favour” is the motto that they [the BDC] always use, and a way to prove that is to do this kind of testing/training.

I’ll look into that! The mere fact that they have that as a requirement, is at least some progress in acknowledging that biases (racial or otherwise) might be a factor when it comes to judging competitions. A very popular counter-argument to these kinds of discussions is: “Dancesport is a sport, and like the Olympics, it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from. Achievement is based on skill and talent alone.”

But I think both you and I know, with the internal politics that happens behind the scenes, this isn’t always true.

It’s not always true. And with something like the Olympics, it is a global event, and I think the qualifications for that are a lot more objective. If you run in athletics and you get the best time, you go through – it’s as simple as that. Dancing is judged by people based on their opinions. Yes, it is based on skill to an extent, because I think ultimately the best dancing does win; but there is sort of a “frozen middle” where it’s difficult for people to progress upwards because of the inherent subjectivity of the judging.

So, I’m sure these issues were pending on your mind for quite a while. What made you decide to take a formal position to speak out?

There was an incident in 2020 during the London protests following the murder of George Floyd, where someone very prominent within the dance scene said something on social media along lines of: “Black Lives Matter protesters should be shot”. And this was somebody who had his own studio, who had a very high-ranking job with DSI TV, and for him to come out and say something like that… You would never say something like that about a community of people if they were well-represented in the ballroom dance scene. You would never.

That was something he said out of pure ignorance, discrimination, racism, and lack of fear due to the fact that he felt like he would be unaffected by it.

Following that there was the hashtag #DancersAgainstRacism where the community support was very positive, but the incident prompted me to think: How he would’ve never made those comments if there were a lot of black ballroom dancers within the scene out of fear of the sheer backlash. So that’s what made me realize that there needs to be a mechanism for attracting more black ballroom dancers. We need to do away with prejudices and behaviours of people such as this man, who think they can speak so freely about something that is such an important global issue which affects every single black person.

It’s difficult to establish this kind of initiative in the ballroom dance community because it functions so differently compared to other styles of dance. I actually discovered the TIRED Movement through a student of mine who was a good friend of Stacey Green (TIRED Movement founder) – they were both contestants on this show called “Strictly Dance Fever” years ago. I reached out to Stacey directly, because when I was looking through their website I saw that the typical styles of dancing were there (ballet, jazz, tap, modern, etc.), but there wasn’t ballroom. And there never is ballroom in these kinds of things, it’s always so siloed and not represented as well.

So I thought: We need to change this. What they are talking about is exactly something that is very endemic in the ballroom dance community. It would be great to join forces and use my experiences to be a part of this movement and hopefully introduce this new style of dance that is often left out during these kinds of conversations. With TIRED, I found the “economies of scale” where I could get my message across through a vehicle larger and more established than just me as a single person.

It was definitely a really positive coincidence and came about at just the right time! I was able to host the “Racial Representation in Ballroom” webinar, which wouldn’t have happened without the support and the resources of the TIRED Movement in terms of advertising and connectivity. It would’ve been very difficult if I had tried to do it myself as a one-man band. So I’m very grateful to be part of the movement and get this on the map as it really should be.

That’s one of the reasons why I was quite excited to see you on the TIRED board, because like you said, not only is ballroom kind of sidelined as a dance genre, but as far as racial representation goes – Within ballet and jazz, there have been really large movements to increase representation. I can think of Ballet Black and Alvin Ailey…but for ballroom there is really nothing.

Yes, and you can see when these movements have happened, they’ve made huge differences. The people are there because there have been these sorts of movements to allow them to get there. There’s always this belief that black dancers only like certain styles of dancing like hip-hop and break-dance and afrobeat, which they do and that’s not wrong at all; but black dancers just love to dance! And they can be as enthusiastic about all styles of dance from ballet to ballroom. But because there is no representation, they don’t feel like they can thrive in the industry therefore they find somewhere else to pursue their passions.

When you have these kinds of movements, it creates space for people to feel like they can belong in the community and express themselves authentically. You’ve seen the impact these movements have had in the other genres of dance; the same thing should happen for ballroom. But exactly as you mentioned – because it’s so sidelined in these discussions, no one really looks into it and it feels like a private members club where it’s not as accessible as other styles of dance.

If we’re able to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ballet Black or Debbie Allen Dance Academy, then I think there’s huge potential for ballroom to be inclusive and introduce a load of new dancers from different backgrounds into the community.

*Lauren and Oskar winning the Home Counties Championship in September 2021*

It is very inspiring to see these precedents and follow them to bring the same improvements for ballroom. On that note, I just wanted to talk about some of the visible commercial efforts to improve diversity in dance, such as manufacturing a wider range of shoes and dancewear to suit different skin tones.

In November 2021, you and your partner Lauren Claydon were officially sponsored by International Dance Shoes and you were the first black man to be sponsored by IDS. You two also did an interview for IDS’ blog in which you talked about The Equal Dance Initiative, an organization that collaborated with IDS to expand the IDS Nude Collection to include more shoe options for people with darker skin tones.

Could you talk a bit about that?

So actually that happened before I joined and it was a collaboration between IDS and Karolina Paliwoda (founder of The Equal Dance Initiative). It started in 2020 as a result of the events after the murder of George Floyd and what was occuring in the community with the #DancersAgainstRacism. I think for Karolina, the project was something which was a long time in the making, but those events inspired the timing of the launch.

Because I was so passionate about this subject, I reposted their shoes and I thought it was brilliant that someone was finally taking the initiative towards inclusivity. It allows people to feel like they have shoes that match their own skin tone and don’t have to go with the standard shoe colours that only match tanned white skin.

Thereafter, I applied to be a sponsor for IDS because I thought that: “if you’re going to have these kinds of shoes in your range, it’s only right that on the sponsorship team you should have people who are actually representing those shoes”, otherwise it’s not really putting your works into action. And with the competitions we’ve won, the South-African Championship and things like that, they thought: yeah, this could be a potential partnership.

I applied for sponsorship in the typical procedure and Justin Patel (Director at International Dance Shoes) followed up with various interviews, and then fortunately offered us a sponsorship. But that wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the fact that The Equal Dance Initiative was such a high priority for the collaboration and because it was really important to show that black dancers can be successful through dance. So I think that is why I was selected to be part of the sponsorship team, as well.

There is a professional American Rhythm dancer, Zahara Diego-Moffitt, who wears those shoes. I found out about that collaboration line through her.

There is another girl on the IDS sponsorship team called Edith Maina Flinders, who was a juvenile when she started the sponsorship, whom I recommended to IDS. Because obviously I can’t wear the Nude shoes – I mean I probably could, but that’d be another story [laughs] – so I thought it was important that IDS actually had somebody on the sponsorship team who could wear the shoes and that they continued to commit to increasing diversity by having more than just one token person on their team. After my recommendation, they then took on Edith and her partner Oliver. So she is actually wearing those shoes now, along with the likes of Zahara and other people.

You can see by the reaction to those shoes that it does really mean a lot for people: To be able to have a shoe that matches their skin tone and feel like they’re comfortable in their skin and represented. They don’t have to settle for these bright shoes which don’t compliment their feet, contrast with their skin tone, and which they have to find some way to cover up to make it blend in. So I think it’s a huge, huge thing and a really important and positive step forward that they’ve made.

Other black dancers who’ve inspired you - I remember you mentioned Motsi Mabuse in your interview with IDS.

When I was very young and looking for videos, Motsi was the first person who was black that I saw competing. You know, when you watch ballroom videos all the competitors are Europeans. To see a black woman, specifically a black African woman, who was dancing and competing at the highest level with excellent results – For me, it was a huge motivation. Finally, there was someone I could relate to and who looks like me! If she could do it, that means that if I put in the work and dedication, I can achieve as well. I followed her journey religiously, I watched all of her videos, her and her partner’s videos…

I was so impressed to see that she got excellent results: She made the semi-final of the Open British in Professional Latin and she was a finalist in the World Amateur Latin Championships, both of which are notoriously difficult events. But she also received a lot of backlash. If you look at some of the videos of her on Youtube, you’ll see some really hateful comments about the way she dances. I think these have stemmed from ignorance because of that lack of representation. If the way in which black dancers dance was represented more, peoples’ opinions would change and they would appreciate it for what it is: true rhythmical dancing. But because people’s inherent prejudices are easily expressed behind the safety of a keyboard, there are some nasty comments out there which is really unfortunate.

But it never stopped me from believing in her ability to perform and the results speak for themselves. She’s gone on to great things, working on various TV shows, etc. Just the fact that she’s not only a brilliant dancer but also such an infectious personality. And that’s what’s missing – diversity of thought and diversity of expression. There’s so much more to be gained from having more diverse peoples in an industry beyond just increasing the racial representation. There’s so much more that can enrich an industry when you have people of different backgrounds in it.

For example, for Chinese dancers one of the things that people always say is that they’re extremely disciplined. When you see what they’re able to produce in terms of the art and the consistency in the way they dance, it’s phenomenal. You would miss out on the opportunity to observe and learn from them if you didn’t include them in the community. I still think there are many talented Chinese dancers who probably don’t get the results that they deserve, because the representation – although it is higher than for black dancers – is still not as high as it could be. Not only Chinese dancers, but Asian dancers in general. It always feels like there’s a glass ceiling when it comes to the competitions, despite the fact that many of them are clearly talented.

It’s symptomatic of a lot of things that are “deviations from the norm”, when they are incredibly talented but don’t receive what they deserve. Because they are different and not appreciated by a greater diversity in terms of the judging and the way in which dancing has developed. People are missing out on the opportunity to get a really rich and culturally diverse dance community that is authentic Latin-American dancing or authentic Ballroom dancing.

That is an interesting word: “Authenticity”. And I wanted to ask, because it comes along with the territory – especially for Latin Dancing and you being a professional Latin dancer – Latin dancing inherently has its roots in Africa, Latin America, or the Caribbean. Europeans looked at these traditional native dances and decided they were going to adapt them.

Do you ever get feedback, as a black dancer, that you should be dancing more “authentically”? Or that you somehow have a quality that suits this dance style more?

Yeah absolutely. One of the things I always get is “Oh, you’re so rhythmical” or “Oh, you should have all that rhythm - We can’t teach you that, you have that naturally”. And it’s…It is definitely an advantage because I do have that natural sense of rhythm. So when you get that feedback it’s kinda difficult. Because then you go against what your natural instinct is to try and conform.

And that’s what a lot of the dancing is about – conforming.

Only when I started really developing my own understanding of the fundamentals, was I able to use that to enhance my own personal expression and really capitalize on the rhythms that I do naturally have.

But for a long time, it was just “Oh yeah, because of your background you are very rhythmical, you have such a rhythmical body, blah, blah, blah”, that I'd hear all the time. Although there is this disconnect of “If the dancing is supposed to be so rhythmical, then why am I not getting through?”

The fundamental components of ballroom are rooted in a lot of different styles of dance. The way which you use your feet and develop muscles is akin to ballet, and the way the choreography has developed now feels much more contemporary. Especially in Latin, it’s a lot more dramatic – what is “social media-savvy” if you’d like. To an extent, Latin American dancing has moved away quite substantially from its roots. As much as that rhythm is always going to be identified, I don’t think it’s appreciated because of the way the dancing is moving more towards a contemporary look and feel. Consider rumba: there’s a lot of time spent doing lines and overly expressive actions. Cuban motion is a bit of an afterthought these days, in my opinion.

If you had more dancers within the community that are able to relate Latin back to its authentic roots, then I think we’d see a much more authentic style of Latin American dancing which is true to its original forms. But because that representation isn’t there, and because it can be so confusing as to what Ballroom Latin really is when you have other styles like salsa, bachata, merengue, etc. now, it misses out on the opportunity to truly be an authentic form for that reason.

Oskar and Lauren dancing at the United Kingdom Closed Championship Semi-Final in 2022

Would you say that is a goal of yours? If we were to introduce more diversity into Ballroom, we would be able to take Latin dancing back to its original roots?

Yeah, and I think that a lot of the teachers within the industry want to do that, but they are constantly battling between what’s authentic and what’s competitive. And because this is a dance style which is very much based on competition, they will go for what’s competitive. You look for what’s faster, what’s stronger, what’s more dynamic or has a better image. It doesn’t really say anything about the authenticity of the way in which the style of dancing works.

Again, I think when you introduce people from those cultural backgrounds who have that inherent skill, you also introduce diversity of thought, diversity of expression, and diversity of dance. Just like the example I mentioned of the Asian dancers and their level of discipline which people have started aspiring to; when you see the rhythms, your natural curiosity will inspire you to find out how to dance to get that rhythmical look or that really authentic look. But the community right now is not looking at that and is very much only benchmarked on what is more competitive.

And I think authentic is competitive. But currently, the way in which competitive has gone is faster, stronger, louder, bolder – but not necessarily true to the style of dancing.

I think it’s kind of a game of how far you can push authenticity until it becomes uncompetitive. I feel in American Rhythm they really are looking for the authentic Afro-Cuban body movements and everything like that. So I see a lot of it, and there are very successful top-tier rhythm dancers: Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, who is Haitian; José Decamps, who is Dominican; and Rufus Dustin, who is African-American. But it enters a territory where they want you to be authentic and have these rhythms and cultural backgrounds, but not so far that it becomes unfamiliar.

And I remember, one of my co-workers at my studio said this about Zahara Diego-Moffitt, which I thought was interesting: She has this particular look and rhythms, but at the same time she still looks very “Latin”. Like she still has the quality that resembles the European Latin dancers and the type of movements that are similar to them. (Additional note: that Zahara was still being compared to the “standard” of a European Latin dancer). So she is different, but also recognisable enough that it remains “comfortable”, in a sense.

Exactly. Until the differences are rewarded, that’s all it’s going to be – “You’re different enough that we can appreciate that you have a unique style, but you still conform enough that we deem it acceptable”. And I think Zahara is someone who’s made an immense amount of progress in a relatively short space of time through sheer hard work and dedication. She is now storming through the ranks of American Rhythm because she is able to produce that authentic look. I see her results and it’s always: Ok, we did this, this, and this in the dances, but we got 2nd in Mambo or something like that. Because it has the authentic look, it looks like authentic Mambo dancing! That’s why the results for it will be so much higher than say, Bolero, or something that isn’t particularly Latin American – Oh well, that’s probably incorrect of me to say – or of African origin, specifically.

Once you start to appreciate the differences and reward those differences, that’s when the community will start to realize and recognize that this is the way in which the dancing should be developed. When you don’t have the bodies in there to award that success, that’s when you end up with a vicious cycle of inauthenticity because there just aren’t the people there to represent what authenticity should look like.

Right. That was why it was so important to have this discussion of racial representation with the TIRED Movement. Moving forward with that, I wanted to know if you had any future personal projects and/or will be working with TIRED on this issue?

Yeah, so “Black in the Ballroom” is a program that’s hopefully going to get young people from ages 4-18 into ballroom at the grassroots level. I think a lot of Black dancers discover dancing later on in life, like adults who enjoy social dancing and stuff like that, but were never able to do it competitively for a number of different reasons. And essentially what “Black in the Ballroom” will be able to do is eliminate those factors such as cultural barriers, financial constraints, etc. If we take all those factors away, can these people be successful? And I think the program will prove that they can.

I’m also aiming to improve the diversity of my own cohort of students. Right now, I have about 5 or 6 actively competitive students who are of black, African, Caribbean, or other black origins; which is much more than in a lot of other schools, but still not nearly enough as it should be. I want it to be at the point where, it’s not that I’m identifying the black students in my cohort, but that these are just my students. This is exactly how it should be. You can see the benefits of it now: These students are making finals in competitions.

A little girl who started my dance class when she was four years old, she did her first UK national medalist competition in Blackpool last year and made the finals in both Ballroom & Latin! So it goes to show that I’m not banging on a drum that people don’t need to hear. Literally the only thing that stands in the way of black people being able to achieve their true potential is just the opportunity to do so. When they are given the opportunity, they can be successful; as shown for example, by the students that I have, the students that I’ve seen in other schools, and obviously myself through my own competitive dance career.

I’m just trying to extend that opportunity as much as I can. To keep having those conversations, to keep making diversity part of my ballroom dance brand, and ultimately, to keep being seen and keep competing, as much as it can be difficult at times. As long as I’m keeping within the scene, then there’s no reason why people can’t feel inspired and empowered to think: “Oh, this guy! I’ve seen him dancing around quite a lot, maybe I should give this a try!” or “International Dance Shoes has this Nude range that must be for black dancers and dancers of darker skin tones, so maybe I should reach out to them and ask about getting into ballroom dancing!”

There’s so much potential for black dancers to get into this competitively or as a career. As long as you continue to see black dancers being able to achieve their potential, the people and the numbers will continue to grow because people will start to feel represented and no longer will feel uncomfortable as a black person in a predominately white space.

Oskar with his students — all of whom successfully passed their first medal examinations

Oskar’s student presenting her trophy for making the final of her first ever competition: the UKA Grand Finals in Blackpool

For the ballroom dance community as a whole – Is there anything that teachers, competition organizers, etc. can do to make a more welcoming space? Should they be reaching out actively to black communities?

Yes, they should. And I think that the reason they don’t is because most of the time, they don’t know how. So by engaging in conversations like the TIRED Movement’s recent webinar “Racial Representation in Ballroom”, they could learn a lot about the barriers of entry for people, how to reach out to these communities, and how to make their studios/schools more welcoming to dancers of different backgrounds. But that requires the active participation of these individual studio owners, judges, competitors, competition organizers and promoters – they need to be actively involved in this conversation. And of course, beyond just participating, people need to realize there’s work to be done and that they need to make their own contributions to be able to benefit from these discussions. Until that is made clear, it will be difficult because these are the people who hold the power to make the change.

Yeah, I think that is a very good way to move forward with this. To just begin having these visible conversations.

Yes and you will start to see the change because it’s about being equitable. You’re then able to understand where people are coming from when they enter a dance class, because not everyone will approach it the same way. Sometimes you need to reach out a little bit more, sometimes you need to provide them with more guidance, sometimes you have a conversation to understand where they’re coming from and what they want to achieve from dancing. And that’s for anybody really, not just black ballroom dancers.

If the ballroom dance community didn’t have this “one-size fits all” approach and really looked individually at what people require, people would feel more invested in and want to stay in ballroom longer.

Just one final question: Do you have any advice for a young black dancer who might be reading/listening to this or who might see you dancing and feel inspired?

Hit me up! Let’s have a chat! There’s so much knowledge and experience I’ve gained from being in the industry that I can help in some shape or form for anybody who wants to dance. And I’m not putting myself on any kind of pedestal – I’m as desirous of wanting to grow and be successful as the next black person that comes into this industry. I haven’t got all the answers and I haven’t achieved everything that I’m ever going to achieve. I think it starts with community. When we are able to reach out and support one another, then you can feel that at least someone out there has got your back.

Also never give up! Because there are things I’ve managed to achieve, even in the last couple of weeks, that I’ve been trying to do for years but never thought I could. But change is on the horizon. The winds are starting to shift and people are beginning to sense this. Now is the time to really galvanize by making sure people do feel like they are represented and have opportunities.

So don’t give up! Really focus on and enjoy learning the fundamentals & technical aspects. Find who you are as a dancer and what you want to express in the dance community; and stick religiously to that. Don’t feel like you need to change who you are in order to fit into the community or be accepted. Be who you are. Learn how to adapt the fundamental skills of the style of dance you choose to help support and enhance that authenticity that you have.

The passion and skill on the floor are there. But it’s a bit unrefined. Once you put investment into teaching people the fundamentals, then it becomes a lot easier for people to showcase the true potential of their abilities in this style of dance.

That’s wonderful! Thank you so much for speaking with me! I was really happy I had the time to talk with you because I’ve been so excited about what you’re doing and what you’ve been doing with TIRED, so I’m really grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you, Annie! And thank you for the opportunity to showcase this. It’s so important to give dancers a voice right now!

A massive thank you to Oskar Odiakosa and the TIRED Movement for generously sharing their time and their vision with us. Oskar has truly been an incredible inspiration to us and we continue to be impressed with all he has achieved in bringing his message to the world. WTF magazine is hoping to work with the TIRED Movement on possible future collaborations, so keep in contact with us!

You can follow Oskar (@odiako.co_dance) and the TIRED Movement (@movementtired) on Instagram. Please also check out BBC One’s documentary “Blackpool’s Dance Fever” if you are interested in seeing more of Oskar’s journey as a black ballroom dancer.