We were lucky to catch up with Cuong Tran recently and have shared our conversation below.

Cuong , appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

When it comes to my craft, I need to layout what I do first of all. I am a t-shirt designer and street dancer. When it comes to design, I’ve been at it for 15 years. I went to school for it. Then when it comes to the dance, it took me 10 years to learn what I know now.

For dance, it wasn’t until the pandemic that I got known worldwide for it. I got some amazing opportunities through dance. opportunities like competing in the online edition of Battle Samurai with some of the world’s best dancers. Or getting notice at summer dance forever which is one of the largest dance competitions in the world.

For Art, I started designing shirts right before the pandemic because I wanted to spark my love for making art again. After working in the design field while making a living for over 15 years, the passion for art has left me. And honestly it hasn’t come back yet still. But some of the cool things that came out of designing shirts was that, people all over the world is wearing my design and honestly it warms my heart.

What I could have done differently to speed up the progress for both could be finding a teacher or mentor. It was crazy how fast I got recognition after learning from all my teachers. Getting a mentor also teaches you the culture behind the art as well. Without a teacher, you don’t fully understand the why. Why do you draw? Why do you dance?

Some of the most essential skills I learned from over the years is how to be resourceful. There have been many nights where I spent hours researching what its possible with both art and dance. The other skill is how to network. In both industries, its about who you know more than what you know. So the more people you meet, the better your chances are for really making it out.

The biggest obstacle for me was myself. There were days where I had a lack of drive. So I took a break. There were days when I wanted to quit. So I asked for advice. There were days when nothing I did felt good. So I stop and reminded myself why I started to do art or dance in the first place. It was because it was fun.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

What up folks, my name is Koi. My brand is called Koioutofwater. My brand originates from Bruce Lee’s philosophy. Bruce Lee says, “When you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, if you put water in a bowl, it becomes the bowl. Water flows, water crashes, be water my friend.”

When I try to interpret that quote, it’s the idea of getting use to being uncomfortable. When you put yourself in a situation where you come face to face with fear consistently, fear becomes something else. Fear becomes confidence. If I can dance for 10,000 pacer fans ( I’ve done that ), I can give 1 interview.

If I can draw for the whole world ( I’ve done that ), I can draw for myself. What is a Koi out of water? It’s a fish that struggles to breathe. What if I was a fish that got used to struggling to breathe? Breathing is one of the world’s most fundamental things for any living organism to live. If I can live while struggling, I can do anything.

My website is koioutofwater.com it’s got street dance wear that you can buy. But it also shows you my dance. I decided to showcase both my art and dance because that is who I am. I am more than just dance and I am more than just art.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My whole life story is about resilience. I was born in Vietnam about 34 years ago. When I was born, my mother was about 16 years old. This was around the end of the 80s. We barely touched on racism in America, but racism was huge in Vietnam. My mom is part African American. For the fault of just existing, my mother had to deal with racism everyday even though she was part Vietnamese. The fact that she had black in her, people called her Black American. Told her she needed to go back to her country.

When she had me, it was to a man who was already married. He played her. My birth caused her to be kicked out of the family. It wasn’t bad enough that she was a black American, now she is a single mother at such a young age. She brought shame to our family.

So there she was, homeless, with a baby in her arms. We went from city to city, from a small village in Vietnam to a big one in Saigon. After a while, she managed to get us a trip to America for a better life. Turns out being a black American paid off.

I was 4 when we made it to America. Here she is, a new country, new city, new language and the only person she knew was me. Fast forward to 2024, my mother had 3 boys. All of which have cars, educated, American citizens. We are well off because my mother was the most resilient woman in Vietnam. So the next time you struggle, think about me and my mother and our journey to travel to America.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Honestly, I am still building it. But what I did probably isn’t the best business strategy, but it’s been working for me. I’ve built some respect for my name with this path. All I did was post. The way I looked at it is, social media was my diary. My dance is my movement diary. My art was my art diary. I just kept posting everyday. People started to notice my commitment. They started following me because I took the long way, every step of the way. There was no skipping the line for me. Every post, every caption was building my online presence one after the other. It’s not been the most lucrative path for me, but it’s the one that made the most sense.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://koioutofwater.com
• Instagram: koioutofwater
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kingkoiroi

Image Credits

One with the dragon was taken by https://www.instagram.com/indydancephotography/

The one with the orange background was taken my myself.