We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ikeem Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ikeem thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

I myself came up in dancing as my own boss but had some role models but after a while me being a 1st generation of the dance called Litefeet couple generations later I stumble to a kid name Jay wavy live down the block from me. This kid was persistently coming to my house my mother told me this kid looks up to you wanna learn teach him. Really a heavy set kid at the time I ain’t want him to be mediocre with the big guy dancer I told him do 5 push ups you can be under the wing. First day was a bust but he took that to heart and did 5 push ups then couple years later he became the greatest of his time very proud of him today.

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?

I feel in love with the dancer lifestyle back in 2006 see when sidekicks was a thing and the world going to wireless flip phones was still a thing. Nextel chirp ringtones was our speaker back then and we was around the cell saga in dragon ball z. I was already animated and full of energy so I started going out with a group called brotherhood which consisted of 5 members we wanted to be different and make a difference not be a gang but a official dance team the word brotherhood express our unity after a while the members stack up and kids from every hood would come dance with us. Of course other teams was out but we was the goal post for most nyc dancers back then. My most proudest moments is living through the hard times having my second child and over coming homelessness. Manage to strive and help others do the same and even help freed good kids out of jail. I love this dance culture like a family and I till this day strive to create and build more to keep this style immortal.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I had a torn meniscus from a battle against another name flii boogiie. I had to go under the blade and get a repair. Most people who even go through this most the time never be the same again. Since day one of surgery when in there head held high and bust it out I never let it stop me it made me more passionate. What push me was the thought of people who over come these daily things with having a missing limb or disability but they strive everyday who am I to complain specifically lucky to have been gave this second chance to keep going so I went to physical therapy every week I even did leg lifts to bring back the muscles to my skinny drained out leg. I used my will to win and now you can’t even tell I had any surgery shoutout my surgeon.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

After a while quarantine did its damage but I took as a chance to build my teaching platform. I took to Instagram lives started making appearances and having dancers come chat or dance then after a while I started to teach more online open a patron and learn how to take my online presence serious with google analytics and YouTube with tutorials I really went the next step. Ended up meeting online some great students such as Charles and Aaron who dances with my bro Kai dragon who dances with celebrities like Janet n usher. Aaron a game designer for apex but at night a dance vigilante who turn up them la clubs to the point the bouncers give him vip. Then I met Phil who is from Australia I taught so much to and put under the wing and entrusted him to lead Australia he is doing so good. The key is to make a strong circle of people who got the same passion and wanna see you win also people who want to invest in themselves to be better. People who work just as hard as you prolly even on another scale so it pushes you be great as well.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Shakeyyjones / litefeetjones
• Linkedin: Ikeem Jones
• Twitter: Litefeetjones
• Youtube: https://YouTube.com/jonesgfm
• Soundcloud: Litefeetjones

Image Credits

Amanda Adam Louis