Hi, I'm Riki! I create artwork, teach and perform to inspire people who are looking for a sense of freedom and joy in their lives. I want people to sense and access their potential through dance.
Have you ever felt powerless or unimportant? Have you ever felt like you are too little or too much? Or just simply, not enough?
Weeell, I have been there my friend!
The majority of my childhood was lived in the countryside and, as we all know, that's where fairies live 😉✨
I would play in the fairy rings I discovered, find hidden passageways and secret dens, and talk to all of the imaginary friends I made. As I got older I caught Pokémon in the fields and on the beach near my house, and I had magical powers like the X-Men. I could control water and I had a bamboo stick as my weapon of choice!
I would watch all of my favourite fantasy shows and then re-enact them in this outdoor playground. My mother encouraged me to go out and explore and my brother was my team-mate.
You could not have met a child with her head more in the clouds! I believed life was perfect, that only rainbows and unicorns existed.
But… life pushes on, I grew and changed, and we are all dealt pain and challenges… and I didn’t have the tools to deal with life’s promised dose of suffering.
Insert now a long period where the unicorns died, the rainbows disappeared and my identity, belief system and trust in people disintegrated.
My TV shows and fantasies were not enough anymore. Dance saved me from falling any deeper, but my internal battle was only beginning.
Looking back on this period of depression and anxiety, I remember how powerless I felt.
Dance became a place where I could feel free, I could make choices and I could have FUN without intrusion from the outside world. It allowed a safe place for me to play, thrive and simply just be.
To be honest… I have struggled with my own wonderfully complicated mind since I was a teenager. I have also moved through bouts of forgetting where the fairies lived… or how to use my magical powers… or how to fight with my bamboo stick and feel free…
There’s no neat bow I can tie all this up in. My story continues, as does your own, and I don’t have any answers or hacks for this life’s promised suffering.
I can tell you, that I fiercely believe in giving people the autonomy to move and re-discover their body, and therefore their joy, and therefore their freedom.
I fiercely believe you deserve to feel good in your body. And strong. And free.
I fiercely believe in reminding people, through my dance work, what it felt like to be full of wonder, curiosity and passion for life.
Come see my performances, take my classes, watch my videos and I hope you will see that, after a LOT of time, epiphanies and work on my relationship with myself…
The rainbows came back.
I remembered how to fight for what I believe in.
I remembered what freedom feels like.
And now I dance with fairies, comic book characters, anime and aliens 👾
