South Auckland’s ‘Happy Feet’ gears up for dance battle that could take him to Europe

A dancer who fuses hip-hop with elements of his Polynesian heritage is hoping to make a name for himself at a competition on Friday.

Manurewa resident John Vaifale performs under the name Happy Feet and credits dance with helping him to keep his life on track while growing up in south Auckland.

The 26-year-old is taking part in the Red Bull Dance Your Style dance battle at Britomart for an opportunity to travel to Europe and compete on the world stage.

“I grew up in a Samoan family, with very traditional values and real communal beliefs, with the whole village mindset that we’re all one together,” Vaifale said.

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“I grew up poor, to be honest. But it never really bothered me or my family, and I don’t ever think we thought that we were struggling.”

As a fidgety kid in primary school, Vaifale discovered dance as a way to channel his energy.

“I couldn’t keep still and I think it was from then a lot of people thought, ‘There’s either something about him, or something wrong with him,’” he said.

“As I found out, I just love dancing that much.”

In 2009, he started taking dancing more seriously and taught himself moves by watching online tutorials.

“Me and a few friends who were dancing at that time, we didn’t have a studio so we would actually watch tutorials at the local library, because it was free internet – we didn’t have internet at home,” he said.

“So we would watch tutorials at the library, and then we would just go over to the car park just outside the library and practise those moves that we had watched.”

He was given the name Happy Feet by a lifeguard at his local pool, who said watching him dance into the water reminded him of the 2006 animated film about dancing penguins.

Vaifale credits dance with helping him keep his life on track and avoid negative influences.

“Growing up around a lot of negative type of people, or some people would just call them criminals, in my area, they have a huge influence because you’re so young,” he said.

“I would say that, yeah, I did look up to them and I did aspire to be like them, but I also had this thing, I also had dance, that was kind of battling within my mind.”

He said dance opened his eyes to a new view on life, and prevented him from making bad decisions.

“Eventually, as I got older, I found out how much I love this thing called dance… and I made the full decision to not follow my friends and other influences in my area and to actually just pursue this dance passion that I had,” Vaifale said.

“As cliché as you hear it a lot, I honestly believe… dance has saved my life.”

Vaifale combines different dance forms like hip-hop and break dancing with his Samoan heritage to create his own style.

“I’ve always been one to never forget about who I am and where I’m from, and in saying that, a lot of dancers will just dance these styles of hip-hop, these styles of street dance, but I like to include my culture, my heritage,” he said.

“I use this melting pot where I put all of these styles into this pot, I mix it up and then I just kind of make my own kind of version of everything, and then I just top it off with that bit of Polynesian island flavour.”

Red Bull Dance Your Style is taking place at Takutai Square in Britomart on Friday and will see people from across Aotearoa compete in an all-styles dance battle.

The winner will travel to Frankfurt, Germany to compete in a world final on November 4.

“I know it’s a big opportunity… I’ve seen the people that come out of it and get kind of known and viral. So I am very excited. I will be honest and say, I’m very nervous as well,” Vaifale said.

“I’m very grateful for it to be here and for me to be a part of it. Super stoked and just trying to train as hard as I can and be as prepared as I can for it as well.”

He said his message for young people growing up is to be curious.

“One of the biggest reasons I am where I am in life is because I have always been curious and wanting to know more and do more,” he said.

“If you have dreams and goals you wish to achieve just go and achieve it, and don’t let anything stop you. I believe everyone is able to achieve whatever they want.”