By Damilola Fatunmise
When it comes to dance, Kafayat Oluwatoyin Shafau popularly known as Kaffy has paid her dues and carved a prominent place for herself in the industry.
A proud holder of Guinness World Record in dance, Kaffy emerges as one of the most versatile female choreographers in Nigeria. She has featured in the music videos of several notable Afrobeats musicians in the country including P-Square, Seyi Shay, D’banj, Lexy Doo, Ayuba and Ruggedman.
The mother of two, who doubles as a dance instructor and fitness coach, opened up to Sunday Sun on her humble beginning, challenges, pet project, and road to fame. Here are excerpts:
How did it all start for you getting into the industry of dance as an art form?
Getting into the industry of dance came from a place of me not wanting to conform to the idea that, if I am not an engineer, doctor or lawyer, I am nobody. I just felt that whatever I chose to be, I could dine among kings and queens. That was what I used to rebel at home and in the society. I faced it religiously, psychologically and family wise. I faced it with the society not accepting me; I lost friends who thought I was unserious because I wanted to dance. Some parents told their kids not to play with me anymore because I chose to be a dancer.
How could somebody say because you’re not a lawyer, he’s not going to respect you?
That is what the society has done to the mindset of people. We’ve decided on who we believe we should respect and who we shouldn’t. It’s okay – status, hierarchy, structure – it’s even in heaven. However, it doesn’t mean that as a human I shouldn’t respect you. I think the respect and value we place on humanity especially in this part of the world has reduced. The only way to improve how we see ourselves is to actually teach that we ourselves are valuable. Because, if I believe I am valuable, I don’t need to tear you down, I will bring you up. I will speak to you from where I am.
What were the measures you put in place before becoming a dancer?
Being a dancer took all of these questions and expressions to stand strong and say, ‘I will make something out of it’. And I started studying the industry, studying what they needed; what they were doing right and not doing right, and how I could be that solution. One of the first ways I broke into that was doing a music video.
How would you describe your impact on the music industry?
With the music video, at that time, before artistes could get rotation on TV, they had to spend so much money. They had to spend so much money to send their DVDs from one station to the other. But now, because one girl is dancing in their video, they are getting ten times, twenty times the rotation. That’s value. As I brought that value, I interpreted it into monetary and also in barter. Imagine P-Square spending around N2 million per track to do a media tour, but because I did that video, they were only spending N200,000. If I told P-Square to pay me N500,000, won’t they be willing to pay? I helped them save a lot of money. That was where I started building value by giving them something that would help them make or save money. Shows are another thing. When you’re on that show, when you’re on that stage, people are going to go ‘P-Square is there, I’m going because I want to watch that person’. I started adding to the value chain. That is where it started happening.
What kind of feedback got you going?
I have met kids in Europe and America who say that, in as much as we look up to them, they have not even broken some grounds that I have broken. And they show me that respect even more. That is when I started owning my value even more.
You have established yourself as one of Nigeria’s most prominent female dancers. How did it all start and what inspires you to keep going?
What has continued to inspire me is problem. Problem inspires me; and it’s not going, it’s not leaving. I have a son and a daughter. I am afraid, if I don’t do something, something will be done to them. We need to think from that aspect. We don’t think our children are safe just because we put them in the best school or we protect them for now. They’re going to go out there. I need to play my part as a mother. And I’m not just a mother of my kids, I’m mother by nature to people I come in contact with, and I need to express that.
God has given me this mantle. This is not just about inspiration and motivation. This is who I am. When I am not motivated, I am still this person. When I am motivated, I am still this person.
My inspiration is the problem, and my motivation is God. Because he put it in me, that’s why I’m here.
How do you intend to get to the grassroots as soon as possible?
What’ll shock you is that a lot of these kids are from the grassroots. But, the good thing is that, we don’t need to go to the grassroots and have tattered tents. I want to tell you that you are valuable; I need to bring you to a valuable place. I need to bring you to a place that your parents have never seen you, to receive lectures. It needs to be tack; it needs to be clean. When people come into my dance studio, parents come in there and ask if dance is all we have to offer. They think they’re walking into a proper corporate entity. The creative industry is not a ghetto story. I’m not going to go and sit on a floor in a muddy ground, with kids surrounding me, for people to know that I’m impacting. I want them out of that mud. I need to take them to a place that they should be able to see themselves.
There are some kids that have not been to this kind of auditorium before. Why do I want to take them to the mud? We need to bring them to places where they can gain exposure. That is what opens their minds; it’s not locking them in the village because we want to reach them. We want to take the village out of them. The only way to achieve that is to let them see beyond the village. Which is the reason why even though, we are going to different places, we are very specific about the venues we are using. They have to be places where these kids could never think we can host this sort of thing. That’s what I did back in 2017. I took the whole of Landmark Event Centre and people were wondering how I was able to secure the posh venue for just dance.
How do you get funds for this your impactful project?
Yes, it’s all about funding. I literally spend my money 90% of the time. Five percent is goodwill and five percent is what we’re able to get for those that are doing… This time around, I’m like, we’ll do it and continue to do it well, and package it even better. The reason why we have a controlled audience here is because we are trying to shoot the content properly, use it for propositions, and start speaking to a lot of people.
I have done a lot and I have paid my dues. So, we are speaking to a lot of corporations that want to assist. We’re speaking to some churches that have youth-based population, saying ‘look, we can give you our auditorium, come and teach this to thousands of kids and young people’.
Hope the project is growing the way you want it to grow?
It’s one step at a time. Sometimes, the reason God will not blow something fully is because he’s still cooking me. There’s a level I have reached mentally, physically and psychologically, and even in knowledge, that I wasn’t five, six years ago. The way I am going to think, do, behave and attack things will be a lot different. I really do need funding, and funding for me is not only monetarily. There’s some funding that we can get because people can offer scholarships. Right now, I have put some people through university; they’re going to be graduating in a couple of months – all by myself.
I’ve partnered with some universities that want to be a part of my project, and put kids who cannot afford education in the system. They’re even helping me to develop some of my courses to have strong diploma power. So, you can come to the Khaffy Boss Academy and get a certification in Dance Management, and it is recognised in some universities, and it can also earn you a degree later.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have encountered and how have you been able to surmount them?
The biggest challenge is acceptance. People don’t want to accept that dance has value. No matter how much you grow in dance, some people want to look at you as just a dancer. Even with all my achievements, there are some people in the corporate world that would say ‘you’re that dancer’. No, I’m not going to succumb to your perception.
So, the challenge has been acceptability. Other challenges are access to opportunities that allow growth in business. Some people just don’t understand your business. They’ll say ‘I can’t give money to dance’. While a few companies and banks have helped, a lot don’t give you the support that they would give other entities. My business is very heavy on human capital and human investment. We invest in humanity a lot. So, the dividend of that product comes out in the attitude and character of the people that you pour into. If we want to improve competency and productivity, it is from the character of the person. You can’t continue to complain that Nigeria is not having quality staff and quality graduates without wanting to invest in quality reformation. That’s where I come in.
In what other ways are you inspiring people to engage in this art form?
The Khaffy Boss Academy is really big, and it is going to be housed on the ‘Khaffy-Verse’, which is a huge coaching mentorship and certification platform. It also has a social media area where people can network and engage with their kind. We’re talking about building a community of people of like minds who have access to a plethora of movers and shakers in Nigeria and Diaspora. We’re very focused on the African leadership.
Other things we’re doing include Passion-2-Profit, which is a tour. Then Khaffy Expo, which is the biggest single event that I am doing next year August. It’s a five-day, all encompassing creative industry expo. And that is why we are there showing the world our value, opportunities, investability, culture, art, energy, passion and beauty – all in five days.
We have a couple of apps coming out apart from Khaffy-Verse, one is called the DICE app. When you roll the dice, you have different outcomes. We’re telling you that life is like a dice. Whatever the outcome, you can become somebody with what is there. DICE is an acronym for Dance Industry Creative Ecosystem. It’s going to be an app in which creative people are going to expose their services to end users and consumers.
When you’re not dancing, what do you do?
When I’m not dancing, I’m with my people. We’re always talking the future. And when I have time, I work out. I do swim also. These are my major hobbies.