National champion Happy Feet at Red Bull Dance Your Style Photo: Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Samoan New Zealand dancer John Vaifale (Lalovaea and Solosolo) is packing his bags to head to Germany and represent Aotearoa at the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Finals on November 4.
26-year-old Vaifale won the contest in Auckland in May and was crowned New Zealand’s hip hop freestyle champion.
Vaifale was the kind of kid who couldn’t stop moving. A lifeguard told him he looked like the penguin from the film Happy Feet while dancing on the edge of the local swimming pool. The nickname stuck and he’s performed under the name Happy Feet ever since.
You could say dancing is in Vaifale’s genes, his father Sanele was a passionate breakdancer in Samoa in the 1980s. Falling in love with dancing after watching the New York hip hop film Beat Street.
Happy Feet and his friends learned to breakdance in a library car park in Clendon Park, Manurewa. A place he spent hours watching youtube videos and learning to dance. Collecting cardboard from the recycling bin to use as a mat for breakdancing, Vaifale used what was accessible to him instead of training at a formal academy to learn the craft.
At home in Tāmaki Makaurau, Happy Feet practises with All Style Street Dance collective Projekt Team. A group started by Joshua Mitikulena, it seeks out opportunities for the hip hop and street dance freestyle community in Aotearoa.
Happy Feet Competes at Red Bull Dance Your Style 2023 Photo: Tom Grut / Red Bull Content Pool
Working with Projekt team has grown Vaifale’s freestyle and battle techniques. Skills he delivered on stage at the Red Bull Dance your style contest when, after four rounds of fierce dance battling, Happy Feet won over the crowd. Fusing his unique combination of Polynesian and hip-hop style.
Happy Feet- John Vaifale wins Red Bull Dance Your Style competition Photo: Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
Maggie Tweedie spoke to Vaifale about his hopes to wow the audience at the Worlds in Frankfurt in November.
Aotearoa’s freestyle dance talent are performing over six days in Auckland’s Aotea Square as part of Tempo Dance Festival from Oct 12-21.
