24 hours with Kikis Kakullis
The Cypriot Salsa King
Dance has taken over for a Cyprus-born salsa champion who recent grabbed a rare chance to relax on the island
It’s not often that you walk down the street and see a good looking tanned young man stride towards you looking every inch the salsa dancer. I couldn’t help notice his well-built and toned torso, perfectly framed in a tight, white vest, shoulder-length dark hair slicked back into a tight ponytail. With a wide grin he reached out his hand to introduce himself. “Hi I’m Kikis.” I smiled as he shook my hand and replied, “There was no need to introduce yourself, I could tell from a mile away who you were!”
Kikis Kakullis is by no means your average 23-year-old. He spends almost every waking moment dancing and training, with a jet-set life leading him to destinations across the globe every weekend as he wows the crowds with live performances. As Salsa champion in Bulgaria for two years running, he is now busy preparing to go to the World Salsa Championships in Las Vegas this December to compete against the world’s best movers and groovers. In his hectic schedule, Kikis finally found the time for a quick holiday back home.
“I don’t usually get much time off,” he told me. “I come back to Cyprus and life is so different here and I enjoy having the time to relax. It’s hard to explain a life that revolves around dancing, but lets just say my world is salsa in Sofia”. Kikis begins training in the early afternoon, and then goes on to teach until the late hours of the night.
“To be honest I can’t really remember life without salsa,” he said. So when did he start dancing? “I was eight years old when I began learning Greek and Cypriot folk dances in Nicosia. But I really didn’t want to go, my parents kind of forced me! Now I look back on everything and I realise I owe it all to them”.
At the age of 13 Kikis went on to learn Flamenco and Latin dances, and while his friends of his were off to study science, business or politics after the army, Kikis felt there was no staying away from what he loved most. “I have to admit that my parents would have preferred me to become a lawyer or something more ‘serious’, but I just had to follow my dream,” he explained.
While at college in Bulgaria, training to be a dance coach, Kikis also enrolled at the ‘Los Pambos’ Dance Company, run by Cypriot Pambos Agapiou. As a salsa student at the biggest dance company in the country, Kikis immediately stood out and shot to the top. After only one year, he became an assistant teacher, and within months was jetting off abroad with his partner, Eli, to compete with other salsa dancers outside Bulgaria. Participating in festivals in London, Prague, Milan, Hamburg, Berlin and Geneva, there was just no stopping him.
“We were doing really well and I suddenly realised that you don’t have to be Latin American to be great at salsa,” Kikis said. “Whoever has rhythm can dance, and believe me, absolutely everyone has rhythm. If you walk, you have rhythm, if you move, you have rhythm.” I chose not to admit that although I can walk, I certainly can’t dance.
Becoming Bulgarian Salsa Champion, and going to the World Salsa Championships is another step towards worldwide recognition for Kikis. “It’s so exciting to be competing with the ten very best dancers in the world.” When I asked him what he hopes for, his modesty immediately shined through as he smiled and said, “I don’t hope for anything, I want to just do my best”.
As we talked, his mobile rang continuously and he kept telling friends who called that he’s busy, somewhat shy to admit that he’s being interviewed. “They all lead a very different life to me,” he says. “I come back to Cyprus and hang out with them just like I did at school and I don’t like to go into too much detail about my new life. I prefer to be how I was before with them. This is actually the first time in Cyprus that the media have really paid attention to me,” he said with a grin. “In Bulgaria we’re quite famous and people recognise us when we walk down the street, but in Cyprus I’m just your average young guy”.
There’s no day that’s the same for Kikis in Bulgaria. When the teaching finishes, there may only be time left for a quick dinner before he dashes off to a salsa club where he dances with his partner and throws parties. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, I’ve found what expresses me and I’m not sorry to say that it has taken over my life.”
“Being on stage is like magic and whatever problems you have are washed away. Dancing in front of the crowd is just like being an actor, you have to make the audience happy,” he said. “In the World Salsa Qualifying Competition I had torn a ligament in my leg and couldn’t walk at all for a month but I was absolutely determined to put on a great show. I had to struggle to get up on stage, but I managed to win! After all, Salsa is all about passion, and you have to give the audience what they came to see.”
But it’s not all about passion off stage for Kikis. “I don’t have time for a girlfriend, I’m just too busy,” he said. His day ends at about 3am, and if he’s not dancing then he’ll simply relax on the sofa and watch a good film. “This is the only time I have to myself, and my mind is usually spinning as I go to bed planning ahead”. The lights may be off as Kikis sleeps, but his mind continually drifts towards the spotlight of the next day.
