Nov 16, 2017
To Chengdu and Back: A Young Man’s Journey Through Dance
Kevin Vasquez is a 20-year-old Norwegian of Filipino origin. He is a dance instructor at Quick Style Studio, Oslo and just got back from a three-month trip to China where he was teaching classes at the Quick Style & Sinostage collaboration studio in Chengdu which caters to upto 2,000 students. I had a chance to speak to the young dance guru about his unique journey so far and his vision when it comes to the future of dance.
Early Beginnings
Kevin started to dance when he was a child, at about six or seven years old. His parents, who are also dancers had a strong influence on his early passion for the art. “My mum is the leader of a Filipino dance crew where they dance swing, Filipino folk dance, tango, etc.”, says Kevin, “I started dancing for fun, like most people. Dancing in my room, enjoying myself until I got to the age of 13 where I got more serious. I started to do competitions, showcases and that is also the time I got to know Quick Crew”.
Quick Crew, now known as Quick Style is an Oslo-based international dance crew and creative agency. It is primarily made up of three individuals, Bilal and Suleman Malik and Nasir Sirikhan, but has grown in recent years to include many more people who are part of the “Quick Style Family”. Since winning Norway’s Got Talent or Norske Talenter in 2009, they became a prominent feature of first the Scandinavian and later, the international dance scene. Today, they have dozens of dance and other creative projects under their belt, including choreographies for arguably one of the most popular boy bands in the world today — BTS (Save Me and Blood Sweat Tears) as well as the mega-hit Strawhatz concept which gained them instant world-wide appeal because of their interesting blend of hip-hop and Asian culture.
Originally published at www.huffingtonpost.com on November 16, 2017.
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