Interview by Ruth Lu. Photos by Studiio Peter Michael, Yos Clark & Valentin Fabre

Dancer, photographer, model, singer and much more, Yos Clark is an artist from Cote d’Ivoire. During a conversation full of energy and passion, he opened up to Q-zine about his life as an artist, especially as a dancer. As you read on, discover his journey in the world of dance and his aspirations as an artist.

Could you introduce yourself to our readers ?

My name is Yos Clark. I’m a dancer, model, and sometimes singer. I live in England. If I had to describe myself in one word, it would be “passionate”. Passion guides me in everything I do. For instance, I started dancing out of pure passion. It’s also passion that drove me to photography, which I started almost at the same time as dancing and singing. I have always been guided by passion. Regarding singing, I used to listen to a lot of opera when I started ballet. I only listened to opera and would sometimes imitate some of the singers.

Where did this passion for dance come from?

When I was younger, maybe eight years old, there was a TV show called “Un, Dos, Tres” that I used to watch. It was about the life of students who were studying art like painting, music, acting, ballet, and so on. I was completely captivated by ballet. There was this beauty about ballet that attracted me. In spite of the pain these students would experience as dancers, they still had this ability to give of themselves, to give their audience the most beautiful show. And at that age, I was simply amazed! At eight, I was too shy and too young to put this new interest into words, so I kept it to myself. When I played with my friends, I would sometimes do the splits to try to make myself flexible. At school, I would also try to keep that flexibility by giving my all during gym class. Then around the age of fifteen, I started to get a little more interested in dancing. I did a lot of research. When I opened my Facebook account, I would mostly only send friend requests to dancers. My first friend request, after my dad, was to a dancer [laughs].

Quite a few years passed between when I discovered ballet at eight years old and when I really started to explore it. As Africans, as men, we tend to have prejudices about people who like ballet, and I think that was what held me back for a while. I don’t know if at that time, I would have been able to put this into words but we all have this image of ballet as the little girl and her pink tutu. We don’t usually associate ballet with little boys so I let time pass [before I took it on]. There eventually came a time when I had to express myself and things happened naturally.

So how did you start in the dance world?

At 15, I wasn’t dancing full time because I was still going to school. Dancing was just a hobby. But most Ivorians can dance. I think it’s in our genes [laughs]. So I danced regardless. I had Michael Jackson as a reference. At school, I used to imitate his dance moves. I would stand on my tiptoes and imitate his moves.

I started dancing seriously at age 17, when I was out of school. I had a lot of free time so it was kind of an outlet for me because when I was at home, I wasn’t always in good spirits. I had to find a way to escape. In the beginning, I did a lot of research and watched videos, trying to reproduce dance steps. I mostly  taught myself. And then I continued to make dancer friends on Facebook, took pictures of myself [dancing], posted them, and it went from there. Now I’m in dance school.

I started with ballet and gradually evolved towards contemporary dance. It’s a universe that speaks to me more. In contemporary dance, I feel freer than in ballet where things are more rigid, where there are more rules. In contemporary dance, I can express myself fully. I can bring out my identity, tell my own story, put my own experience into it. It’s a genre that really speaks to me.

How would you describe your year 2020 with everything that happened?

I came back to England in 2020 and lockdown started shortly later. At the time, I experienced it as a bit of a catastrophe. This whole situation was happening just as things finally seemed to be working out for me to study dance as I wanted to. I thought I was cursed because after everything I had gone through to get to England, I was faced with another issue. I was constantly stressed out about how I was going to finish my training. With visa restrictions and all, I honestly couldn’t see a way out. I would question myself about what was going to happen to my life. It was a very difficult time for me.

Our classes were all online, which is something I had experienced in the past because while I was teaching myself ballet, I managed to find an online teacher to support me. So it was a learning model that I was somewhat used to. However, online dance classes are not ideal. Dancing when your space was constrained and the internet connection could be unstable was far from what I had imagined. But I managed to overcome all that, to cheer myself up and continue to post more [photos] on social media.

I even opened a new account dedicated to fashion. I wanted to separate my dance content from my fashion content so as to be more in tune with my different audiences. I realized that people liked my content after all. Thanks to this account, I was spotted by an organization from the London Fashion Week that was interested in my work. They invited me to make a video with them and we worked with 10 other designers. The video was published on the London Fashion Week website and an article was published in Vogue Italia. So there you have it! It’s true that 2020 didn’t start as I wanted it to, but eventually it all worked out. I’m very grateful for this journey and I am confident that this is just the beginning. There is much more to come!

After everything you had to go through to be able to fully exercise and express your passion, how do you see the future?

I tell myself that there is a bright future ahead of me. In life, there will always be ups and downs; but it’s how you approach the challenges, the people you surround yourself with, and the opportunities that present themselves that make the difference. I realized that every time I planned something, nothing went as planned. For example, when I started the online dance classes while I was still in Abidjan, I was supposed to meet my dance teacher in France. But this never happened. And life made it so that through the Africa’s Got Talent contest, she had an opportunity to come to Abidjan. That’s how we met in person. So now, I don’t torture myself with too much planning. I keep my long-term goals in mind and I take the present as it comes because I know that life is unpredictable. I just let life do its thing and then we find out together what comes of it.

When you think back on your journey, from the little boy who was amazed by the world of dance to the passionate and confident man you are today, what message would you leave for little boys like you?

The most important message I can leave them with is to be true to themselves, to be authentic and to love themselves as they are. We hear more and more “if you don’t love yourself, how can you love others?” So they should give that love to themselves and follow their passions. One piece of advice my father gave me when I was starting to dance was that when you do something that you love, you can only be good at it. And along the way, I’ve come to realize how true that is. Photography for example, is something I never learned. I started dancing with very little tools and knowledge. Despite all the constraints, I still managed to make my way, and I’m very happy about that. I honestly have no regrets. So I would encourage them to live for their passions and to give themselves the means to achieve it. That’s really the best thing!

What is your wildest dream as an artist?

As a dancer, my dream is to join a dance company. There are dance companies that I would like to join and these are companies that are in line with my aspirations and that meet my expectations in terms of quality. Eventually, I would like to have a solo career. I am a fairly independent person, I like to improvise in my art, to express myself to the rhythm of the music. It’s something that allows me to renew myself each time, to discover myself. Having a solo career would allow me to free myself from all the restrictions that one can encounter when working within a limited framework.

I also dream of becoming a choreographer and opening a dance or art school in Côte d’Ivoire. Maybe not in Abidjan where there are already a lot of opportunities, but in the countryside, to also give a chance to other young passionate artists like me. When I started, I did not have the means to pursue my art as much as I wanted, so I know very well the situation many Ivorian dancers find themselves in.

Lastly, I aspire to be able to merge my passions – dance, photography and even modeling – into a single project one day. There is no photographer specialized in dance in Côte d’Ivoire for example. This is something I would like to explore and bring to my country. I’ll have to work a lot to get a clearer vision before I can take the plunge but we’ll see how life surprises me!