"Dancing Was My GetAway." Rachel Horne interviews Kasper Vilkaste who was recently spotted street dancing in Doncaster town cente. The video evidence went viral on Facebook and YouTube, so we needed to find out who he was and why he was prancing around outside of Santander. Kaspar Vilkaste - that’s an unusual name? Yeah, I’m originally from Latvia, moved here ten years ago. You started dancing at the age of 13. How did that come about? There were no classes where I lived at that point, on my Granddad’s farm, but I do remember seeing a video of Michael Jackson on TV. It changed my life. Good old Jacko, inspiring the kids. He made everyone want to dance. I remember my dad trying to do the Moon Walk. Yeah, Jackson is my hero. Tell me a little bit about life back home on the farm? I grew up in a little town called Vilaka in East Latvia, 8 miles from the Russian border. My grandparents fell ill so my dad had to move in with them and care for them and mum stayed in town where I went to school. After school I had to go to help dad with farm animals - give the cows water and look after the sheep, doing all the farm jobs. It wasn’t me. I felt like I didn’t belong there and dancing was my getaway. Sounds like it was a hard life?
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My dad said, “What the hell are you doing? You are crazy! Come help me with jobs!” He said I’m lazy and don’t act like a farmer like my ancestors, but my little heart and soul was with dance and art. I didn’t know it then but I was really talented and passionate and my dad is very proud now. I can’t blame him. He didn’t give any time to art. It was all work, work, work. When I was 16 I moved away from it all and my life began. I was so happy to live in a city with universities, theatre and young passionate people like me. I moved to Rezekne, a city in Latvia. My mum wanted me to have a good education and moved me away from the little town to live with her sister, so I lived in Rezekne for 5 years and went to the university to study economics.
So you wanted to be a businessman? Yep, to work in a bank. Some sort of man in a tie job. My mum wanted that. I wanted to dance, so I did. Why did you come to Doncaster? Back in high school I started my dance lessons and continued to teach people throughout Uni days. Then 2 years into Uni I realised, ‘I hate all this accounting and economics. It bores the crap out of me.’ One of my friends lived in Doncaster already from 2002, so I asked him if I could come visit him. He said yes and I moved to Doncaster, put Uni on hold for a year and travelled. You didn’t want to go to London or one of the bigger cities?
Yeah, it was Soviet Union life. Iron curtain, Russian ideology and shortages of products in shops, so you had to kind of make your own way to survive - the farm. I didn’t know any better at that point and couldn’t judge. It was fun though, being on a farm, surrounded with forests and lakes. Great childhood.
London at that point was too scary for me. Can you imagine? Plus I didn’t know anyone there. In 2004 I got a job for MFI and was able to earn more working there than being a headmaster in Latvia. Then MFI went bust! Bankrupt.
What did your family think of you dancing like Michael Jackson?
I looked for another great company in logistics, got all the licenses for forklifts
What did you do?
and got level 2 in English, Maths and Literacy with Learn Direct. I looked for a job and found DHL. I still work for DHL. I’ve been with them for 6 years. Well, we’re bigging up the hardworking warehouse man this issue. I’m not a typical warehouse man. I’ve got other jobs too. At one point I had 4 jobs. How did you manage to squeeze in any dancing? At first it was an evening thing. I went to town on Tuesday nights and Saturdays and started dancing in clubs. People here were like, ‘Damn!’ I was branded the best white guy dancer. I went to all the clubs that played Hip Hop or similar music so I could dance, express myself, make new friends and meet fellow dancers. It led me to meet many great people. Funny thing is, most of the clubs later employed me to dance for them. It’s my other job - club dancer or performer, should I say. When did things start to take off for you? And can you tell me more about your crew, the Urban Jokers? About 5 years ago. I entered Battle of the Bounce and won it. Then I entered Dancemania and won that. I realised, ‘Hey, it’s time to earn money with this.’ So I was warehouse man by day, dance teacher by afternoon, club dancer at night and competitor on weekends at dance competitions and battles. Now I do busking in cities. Urban Jokers are my bessies. I met Pierre in Trilogy in the R’n’B room and we had a jam. He was like, ‘Damn, you’re pretty fly for a white guy,’ and we became friends. 5 years on this other guy Sia and Pierre were practicing all the time together and had a dream. They wanted to be a comedy street dance act and they succeeded. They got to the semi-finals of Got to Dance and moved like Michael Jackson. Great guys. They are still together now. They went on Germany’s Got Talent as special guest recently.