Teaching Beyonce how to dance

What was the experience like working with Beyonce?

It was a wonderful experience for Tofo Tofo to be part of that and show that we can put Africa at that sort of level. It was quite an honour.

How long did it take to teach Beyonce and her dancers the moves for the ‘Run the World’ video?

It took us nearly three weeks. It was tough work, but very satisfying because they had the hunger to learn.

How has it affected your dancing career?

It has had a very positive impact on our career because nowadays people are talking about Tofo Tofo. They know we are here not only to dance but also help Africa develop using this talent by introducing it in schools as part of education in the Arts.

Do you teach dance in schools?

We visit schools and showcase our dance videos to kids and talk about our experience with Beyonce in the hope that they too can believe their talent will help them soar to extraordinary levels. 

How many more celebrities have you had the opportunity to dance and work with on a professional level?

Not many. The most important thing for us is not to dance for celebrities, but the opportunity we get to entertain people through our craft whether in a wedding, in New York’s Central Park or a birthday party.

That is the most satisfying thing. We love to dance and if we get to educate people in the process we consider that as a bonus. It doesn’t matter for whom or where — just as long as we get to dance.

But hasn’t working for the biggest female star in the world in the music industry opened a lot of doors for you?

Of course, some of these stars — like Fat Joe and Ciara — come to our country and whenever they  perform we sometimes get invited to be part of the show.

How did you guys meet?

We’ve been friends for a while now and we live in Maputo which is a small town. The love of dance is what brought us together and because of that we ended up blending so well. We are dance activists and we play drums as well.

How long have you been dancing?

Since 2000, but we started earlier on. With time we became better and better with the experience we gained along the way. 

Was it hard making a career through dancing in Mozambique?

Yes, in Mozambique the arts are not really considered a profession, so we had to make time after school to dance and further develop our skills. 

When you put your video up on YouTube, did you ever think it would lead to where you are now?

Not really, we just uploaded it to share with our friends. We didn’t know it would open amazing opportunities for us — we are lucky. 

We consider Tofo Tofo very fortunate to have travelled to so many great places like Hollywood, New York and Europe to share our talents.

Do your families support you?

Yes, but at first they were a little bit hesitant although later on they saw it was something important especially in the community we live in. They have given us moral support, encouraged us to work harder and reminded us we need to better our talent each day if we are to live off of it. 

Was money ever a challenge for you? What other challenges have you faced?

Not really, whenever someone calls us to perform we have never had that diva attitude. We have remained grounded because we never want to disappoint our fans either at home or in Europe.

We just want to share our talents. Challenges are there because we live in a place where things are a bit difficult.

We, however, don’t stop dreaming, and we fight to achieve different goals everyday that will take us to a higher level.

Have you won any awards?

We consider YouTube the biggest award for us because it is the reason all these wonderful things have happened to us.

It exposed us immensely to the world.

We have been in Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland and other places because of the impact it had. YouTube introduced us to the world, people know us now and they still want to know more.

What are your future plans?

Tofo Tofo’s dream is to develop and open a dance school, teach children and people who want to pursue dance on a professional level. One day Xavier and Mario will get old, so we have to teach other people — pass it forward.

We also want to have a band. It’s good to broaden our gift because that will also add an edge to our act if we were to perform for an hour on a big stage.

Do you still do weddings and birthday parties?

We have had opportunities to perform at major events across the continent.

When we are not booked, we do perform at weddings and birthdays, we are not too big for that. Meanwhile, we are working on another project which we can’t talk about right now.

Generally, in Africa the arts are not taken very seriously as a career. How do you encourage people who are held back because of that mindset that puts dance in the back burner?

It is a big challenge. However, it is just the beginning but we have to change this mentality by being on stage, doing interviews like this and hopefully getting people to believe that dance can take us to unbelievable levels and places we never imagined.

One day it’s all going to come true. We believe Africa has lots of extraordinary people with extraordinary talents that just need to be discovered and it’s time the world took notice. 

Now that you are celebrities in your own right, how are you dealing with all this fame?

We do not let that get into our heads; we are just normal people going about our business.