An emotional win for Red Bull DanceYourStyle Champion, Caine

From afro dance, voguing, hip-hop, locking, and more, Red Bull Dance Your Style celebrates dance’s ability to connect communities, unifying dancers and spectators through a unique competition. The annual event brings your favourite street dance moves and viral dance trends to one stage, and this year’s dancers will throw down for a chance to compete at the world final this December in Johannesburg, South Africa. We met up with this year’s champion Caine to discuss how he started in the industry, his feelings after winning, and what advice he’d pass on.

How were you feeling after you won, and now in the lead-up to the finals?

I felt so emotional because I really didn’t expect to win, I literally just went for vibes. For the finals, I’m feeling nervous about the level of talent because all the winners are gonna be there. I’m still in so much disbelief that I’m even going, but generally I’m looking forward to it.

You’ve got a really unique style, when did you first learn to dance?

I started dancing when I was six, but then I really took it seriously as a career path maybe about two years ago. It was around the time of COVID, I was training a lot during the lockdown, and then when it ended and battles came back, I entered a few but never made it past pre-selections. However, I never gave up, I kept training until I eventually started to win. Then a friend who used to judge many of the events I battled at got in touch and asked me to take part in the #RedBullDanceYourStyle battle. At first, I was surprised ‘what me? why me when there are so many other dancers better than me’, but they insisted and the rest is history.

If you could share a piece of advice for anyone else hoping to enter the #RedBullDanceYourStyle battles, what would it be?

I’d say don’t take it too seriously, and by that  I mean, don’t overthink, just have fun and feel it. With the #RedBullDanceYourStyle battles, you can’t even prepare much because of how random the music is. The type of music I usually dance to didn’t get played whatsoever at the battles, everything that was played, I’m not used to dancing to.

If you want to go into it, go in with feelings, and vibes and just have fun. Especially as voting relies on audience reactions, you need to make sure they’re feeling it and you’re able to get them gassed. If you’re thinking too hard and not enjoying it, the audience will see it.

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Stay tuned as we’ll be following Caine’s journey as he makes his way to the #RedBullDanceYourStyle World Final in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Photos from Red Bull Content Pool