Rising against the Empire – Rhimes Lecointe!

How long have you been a dancing?

I've been dancing roughly 15 years, running Boadicea for 6 years, running the Artist hub for 5 months

Do you teach either privately or in a school?

I teaching both privately and in schools/colleges

How many dancers do you work with/teach?

I have roughly 25 people in the company and 30 in the Artist hub (Empowerment Academy)

Are styles other than street dance do you teach?

I have contemporary foundations that I use in some lessons

Do you run or take part in any crews?

As well as run, I perform as part of Boadicea. I choreograph for Notorious and TDM school from time to time.

How many dance crews/companies do you run or belong to?

I run Boadicea. I am a co-Choreographer at Zoonation

What inspires you, either personally or as a company?

My faith is a big inspiration as well as having an eclectic music taste

Who would you say are your heroes in or out of dance? Why?

Jesus! His tenacious love inspires me to love and share my creativity with others.

Missy, her music, her movement, her respect for dancers

What special morning routines do you follow, personally, (breakfast, workout, meditation, whatever)?

Prayer
Food
Train – body conditioning/gym

What is the one exercise that you have found to be pivotal to your conditioning?

Circuit and weight training. Commitment and goal setting for increase.

What specific book(s) do you most frequently gift to other people and why?

Any book I've ever bought for anyone has been about empowering them to become all that they are. I'm all about reaching potential.

Birthing the miraculous
Dreaming with God

These are the only 2 I can remember but they are books that include testimonies to inspire people.

What would you say is the most important thing you do that makes you successful?

Work on building identity. I personally feel like the more I've gotten to know me the more I believe in what I'm building or the goal gets clearer. I build affirmations and week to week time keeping. Time to work, to rest, to play, and to reflect.

What is your proudest moment?

I think when I realised I could do this on my own. Not on the back of anyone nor needing to depend on anyone to do it but trusting myself and my vision, knowing that what I needed I had inside me already.

What is something that people don't know about you that would surprise them?

I used to be epileptic and was told I would never do half things I do now. (I got healed)

Who do you most want to collaborate with and why?

Genetics – spoken word artist and is just on point.
I'm working with spoken word and movement and I just love her word play and I think visual to that would be incredible.

Nicole Paris – beat boxer – just dope.

What is the lowest point you ever fell to as a choreographer/dancer or person and how did you overcome?

I would say when it was a time up for how I ran Boadicea and who was a part of that.

I ended up getting rid of a lot of people within the crew. Caused quite an up raw and lost some good people, including myself.

These people were not just crew members but they were also friends so it left a lot of people hurt. Which I never wanted to do.

I would say my mistake in that was a lack of communication and then allowing fear to run riot. I then, for a while, hid from everything and truth is the problem wasn't necessary people it was how I saw myself but I needed to change my environment in order to understand myself better.

Although it may not have been handled in the way I would have liked, change had to happen in order for me to step into my identity, I was way off course in a lot of ways.

When you're a leader there is a major thought process that you can't get it wrong especially when the outside is all glittery. But no on knows that the inside it's just plain and simply broken. You then adopt this false responsibility, take on everything and then ego and pride set in.

I just got real, gave it to Jesus and He did it. I'm glad for the journey because it's built perseverance, character & courage. There isn't a fear of expectancy, trying to please others or needing validation which is a massive deal in the creative industry. Despite pouts and hard faces there's a lot of brokenness.

I'm excited most of all that I get to help people into that same ‘real ness'. It's more than dance, I've come from a background of depression, anxiety, low self esteem, abuse and suicide both within my life personally and those walking with me. So honestly dance has been a tool toward freedom but love has been the answer. The book is coming lol

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?

The plan is to keep building the empire. Boadicea to be strong, The Artist Hub to be successful and to have at least 2 books written. The rest is for people to look out for… 

Fill in the blank: If I could change one thing in the world it would be: 

It would be for us to love more for real. To be uncontrolling and a lot more loving.

If you want to make contact with Rhimes you can catch her on twitter @rhimeslecointe or you can email her at [contact-form to='Rhimes@boadiceacrew.com' subject='Hey Rhimes!, I saw your interview on idance.org and wanted to reach out.'][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]