Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Essama.
Sarah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I come from an immigrant family here in the US. My mom is from France and my Dad is from Cameroon. We immigrated to the US when I was about five years old. Growing up, I always loved dancing. I would make-up dances with my friends and perform afro dance and hip hop in talent shows back in 06′ and 07′! With my parents prioritizing traditional education (which I’m super grateful for btw), I never considered dance as a viable option. When I got to high school, I fell off and got involved in some typical detrimental high school kids thing and stopped fostering my love for dance. I was then blessed to attend Rice University and dance on the school’s dance team.
After graduating from college, my life took a turn. I met a group of creatives in Houston and one of them had recently become a full-time beat maker after graduating from Baylor University. I remember speaking to him and being like “I wish I could make dance my career” and he said “well, why don’t you?”. For some reason, that day, those words hit home and my whole perspective changed. I thought to myself “Yeah! What’s stopping me?” and just like that I decided to start making dance videos for Instagram. They really weren’t great – haha – but that pushed me to train hard. I joined a dance company (shout out to Countdown Dance Co!) where I studied urban choreography and began studying afro dance online. Slowly but surely, I grew as a dancer, met a lot of people on the way and got to have experiences I never dreamed I’d have. It’s been an exciting journey so far and can’t wait to see what’s up next!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
ABSOLUTELY NOT …. I faced a lot of challenges. I think the hardest ones were mental. I faced a lot of times where I wanted to give up! Doubt creeps in, insecurity creeps in, rejection happens and sometimes it’s hard to keep going and believing that your dream is worth dreaming! Along the way, I met Jesus Christ and once I understood that this was my purpose and that He had my back, things became easier and a lot more fun. My confidence is truly in Him which takes a load off!
Sarah – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a professional dancer! I specialize in modern African dance forms – often called “Afrobeats” (although that is not completely accurate as the continent has MANY different styles that can’t be summed up by the word ‘afrobeats’). What I am most proud of is my growth and my resilience. Many people in my life didn’t believe that I could make it to where I am now and it feels awesome to know that I was able to push through challenges and be successful and that I’m still going. It’s funny, I recently asked this question to an up and coming artist (s/o to sea sic) I was interviewing (s/o to Heaven Mozart and Afrovibes radio) and she said that she doesn’t think about that – she’s just her. So I’ll go ahead and take her answer and tell you that what sets me apart is that I’m me and that in itself sets me apart.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I created Houston’s first-ever afro dance showcase in February of last year. Basically, I got together a couple of dope dancers and we built a 6 minute dance set w/ live drums that we performed at one of our late-night hookah spots. The show was mad! It was 3 am early Sunday morning, people were just clubbing, drinking, hanging out and out of nowhere we cleared everyone out of the way and went OFF repping our culture. It was awesome!
It was cool to innovate and create our own space to perform. Up until then, it was like – if I wasn’t getting booked to perform than I just ….wouldn’t … so this was kind of like – screw it! Let’s just create our own performance opportunity and show people what we’re about. In America, we have made afro dance so proper and structured so the intention was also to bring afro dance back to the streets in all it’s energy and rawness.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @_sarahessama
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
