Christian Hirwa is bringing his love of dance to the masses

Christian Hirwa is both a dance choreographer and a dancer, although he prefers the second title over the first. He believes that choreography is more restricted to replicating a set dance routine, while dancing is more fluid and allows for innovation. That said he enjoys doing both. The 22-year old Hirwa has been doing his thing for the last 18 years, having started at the tender age of four. Today, he is not only a bona fide dancer in his own right but also has his own dance outfit, the Krest Crew. The three-year-old Krest Crew is best known for their annual Summer Dance Show, a dance extravaganza that happens every August in Kigali. Starting the troupe was the climax of a childhood ambition the young man had always nursed: to dance, and to do so for a living. Hirwa was born in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) to a Kenyan father and Rwandan mother. Both parents died when he was five years old, leaving him and two brothers orphaned. “I struggled with my two brothers whereby we would dance on the street to get paid by people in order to get some money to feed ourselves,” he recounts. He recalls that it was his uncle, who is now based in South Africa as a singer, who taught him dance. “He left me at the age of seven, but I continued dancing, inspired by him”. Following the death of his parents, he spent the next three years under the care of his paternal grandmother, in the DRC. “Because of the struggle and hardships we faced there, my grandmother decided to bring us to Rwanda where she belonged and where my mother grew up.” He recalls that though poor, she did her best to raise him and his siblings. “I grew up in a hard life where I didn’t get anything I wanted as a child but there was hope.” Hirwa makes a dance move on the streets of downtown Kigali. (Courtesy) The relocation to Rwanda initially affected his dance routine. “I didn’t know anyone in Rwanda, so I had to suspend it for some time.” He only resumed dancing in 2004, after enrolling in school. I started to dance with my colleagues where we were doing something called ‘patronage’. We were four boys and four girls, and we named our crew Etoile”, he recounts. They were together for two years until 2006, when it fell apart after some members moved to different schools. The group was gone but Hirwa continued to dance, this time all by himself. After primary school he joined Igihozo St. Peter Secondary School, in the Southern Province, and the dancing continued. In 2008, while in S2, he created a new dance crew, comprised of seven boys. A year later in 2009 the group disbanded. In 2010 he came back to Kigali and found himself alone once again. It was until he joined A.P.A.C.E secondary school that he resumed dance, this time with a classmate called Kayinamura Guy. Together, they went by the stage name, Chris Crew. After a year, they parted ways and he created his own group, the Krest Crew. “I created the crew with the aim of bringing something and that has not been in Rwanda before. I’m talking about some dances like the popping dance, locking dance and robot dance.” Hirwa believes that dance is all about breaking free – mentally or physically, from labels and expectations, stereotypes, cross-cultural boundaries, low self-esteem, and memories of the past. “Since I was young I liked to help people because of how I struggled in my life. I never wish any one to grow up like I did.My first aim is to share my experiences and to change the community of Rwanda, in mind and in talent, by teaching them how to work on their own things.” Some of his favorite dance styles include the popping dance, dub step, locking dance, and house dance. Currently, he is learning the top rock dance, and some b-boy. How does he do it? “I live by practicing in my whole life,” Hirwa says. Every morning I work on my dance routines or my videos. I live by creating new moves of dance, and everyday I take some time to follow the work of others.” Since 2011 he has happily acted as the choreographer for his crew. In 2013 he joined City Arts Kigali as a hip-hop dance choreographer for a year. In 2014 he was selected as a teacher of dance at Ecole Francaise Saint Expery de Kigali. That same year, he was selected as a dance teacher at Ecole Belge de Kigali, where he still teaches the hip-hop dance to this day. His dancing career has not been without its own share of challenges though: “In my dance life I have met many problems such as being in competitions which don’t have prize money. We have come face-to-face with fake judges at some contests, where you find a judge is a model or businessman, with little knowledge about dance.” Also, “dancers in Rwanda never get respected in the work we do, the country we live in, people don’t believe in this thing (dance) that much, but we hope this will soon change.”

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Christian Hirwa is bringing his love of dance to the masses