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Yemi A.D.

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Yemi A.D.
Yemi A.D. in 2019
Born
Yemi Akinyemi Dele

(1981-11-04) 4 November 1981 (age 42)
Liberec, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)
Occupation(s)Choreographer, art director, performer, correspondent, artist
Years active1999–present
Websiteyemiad.com

Yemi Akinyemi Dele (born 4 November 1981) is a Czech choreographer, art director, performer, correspondent and artist. In December 2022, he was selected as one of eight crew members for dearMoon, which is planned to be the civilian lunar space mission.[1]

Life and career

Yemi was born in Liberec to a Nigerian father and a Czech mother. Yemi's father studied at the University of Economics, Prague. When Yemi was four years old, his father visited his parents in Nigeria, however, he was arrested as part of an armed coup and could not return to Czech Republic for another 18 years. Yemi's mother remarried and Yemi grew up with a stepfather. After a few years, Yemi contacted his father again and now he lives with his whole family in Prague.

Yemi identifies as a queer man and advocates for the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights worldwide.

Career

At the age of sixteen, Yemi moved to Prague for education and work. Soon, he began to teach dance in the Netherlands and Sweden and study Street dance in Los Angeles at MaDonna Grimes, a Hollywood dance school.

In 1999, Yemi returned to Prague, Czech Republic, where he founded JAD Dance Company (JAD DC),[2][3] a Czech and international team of dancers and choreographers. Yemi's works and performances have been-well received in many cities around the world including Tokyo, London, Barcelona, Bombay, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Paris and New York.[citation needed]

With his interest in art, Yemi completed a degree at the Central European Advertising Art Institute, focusing on art directing and copyrighting.

Yemi also produced the first music video for Ben Cristovao and the music video of American rapper Turbo T. Double's song ATOMS.[4]

JAD Dance Company

Through JAD Dance Company (JAD DC), he focused on his original dance style called Street FUSION. One notable work of JAD Dance Company is their collaboration with Kanye West as his principal (main) dancers in his 'Runaway (2010 film).[5] Later on, Yemi eventually also set up Dance Academy Prague (DAP); in which people from diverse age groups and ability/experience in dance can come and learn various dance styles such as Hip-Hop, Modern Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, MTV style, Dance Hall etc. from choreographers with diverse nationalities (up to date, Yemi teaches Street FUSHION in DAP). After various training/practice sessions, some students at DAP are given the opportunity to perform live in the streets of Prague, in stages for various corporations and occasions as well as in local and international competitions.

Work with Kanye West

In 2010, the hip-hop rapper Kanye West hired Yemi to choreograph ballet-inspired sequence in the Runaway of the "Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" album.[6][7] The piece was well received and Kanye West commissioned Yemi to create choreography for West's Runaway performance in Los Angeles for VMA's 2010 and for Saturday Night Life performance of "Power" and "Runaway".[8] The collaboration continued with Yemi creating choreography for other songs of the "Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" album for Kanye West's global tour. West tweeted about Yemi,[9] who was also quoted in GQ Magazine regarding Kanye West [10]

Work with Charlie Straight

The following year 2011, Charlie Straight, a Czech indie-rock band, asked Yemi to direct their music video, "School Beauty Queen",[11] which was later awarded the Music Video of the Year in 2011 by MTV Czech.[12][13]

Other works

As a performer, Yemi has acted in several foreign productions such as Chronicles of Narnia II - Prince Caspian,[14] Red Tails, Unfaithful Klara (Italy, 2009)[15] and the Czech series, Ordinace V Růžové Zahradě. Yemi also performed and led choreographies of six series of the most popular TV show on TV Nova - Tvoje tvář má známý hlas.

Yemi was also the first Czech correspondent for MTV Europe and became the host of a popular Czech TV show, ESO.

As a dancer, he performed in a principal role in the original Czech musical, Monte Cristo for two years.

In 2013 Yemi released his debut maxi-single Equals.

In 2014, Yemi was chosen by the readers of MF Dnes among the 24 most influential personalities in the Czech Republic.

Since 2017, Yemi is one of the first Czech ambassadors of sustainable development goals and one of the three Goodwill Ambassadors for the Ministry of foreign affairs in the Czech Republic.

In February 2019, American TV station CBS began to broadcast a new talent show The World's Best and Yemi was chosen to be among 50 professional judges from all around the world.

In 2019, Yemi starred in Apple's Life on iPad Pro worldwide advertising commercial campaign.

As a speaker, he has presented a TEDx talk on his original approach to the millennial generation.

He is also the ambassador of Sustainable Development Goals under the UN for the Czech Republic and was appointed as Czech Goodwill Ambassador by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2019.

Yemi is also an electromobility ambassador for Mercedes Benz, Czechia.

In May 2020, he became the first Czech inductee in the Henry Crown Fellowship Network at the Aspen Institute USA. He also earned program's scholarship.

In 2021, Yemi submitted his application for “dearMoon”—the first civilian lunar orbital mission. Funded by Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who invited eight creatives to join him on a six-day flight around the Moon, the mission will be operated by SpaceX's newest rocket. In Spring 2022, Yemi was accepted into the pre-final group of 20 selected participants and is awaiting the final call.

In 2021, Yemi founded Moonshot Platform Inc., a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization previously operating from Europe, whose mission is to seek and accelerate emerging leaders and their organizations around the world who work on solutions to the 21st Century Grand Challenges & SDGs focused innovations. The platform, supported by former U.S. Secretary Madeleine Albright, hosted five conferences across Europe and the U.S. in 2021 with over 650 C-level change-makers, 60 international speakers and reached over three million people.[citation needed]

Spaceflight

After applying, in 2022, Yemi was selected to participate in a lunar spaceflight as part of the dearMoon project crew.[16] The mission is scheduled to occur in 2023 aboard the SpaceX Starship.

Choreography

Direction and production

  • Internet Viral Campaign – for NIC.CZ
  • Music Video Ben Cristovao – "Give Me Some More"
  • Music Video Charlie Straight – "School Beauty Queen"
  • Music Video for MISTA – "Never Hide"
  • Music Video Kanye West – "Lost In The World"
  • Music Video for Polica – "Wandering Star"

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Meet the dearMoon Crew". Official dearMoon page. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  2. ^ RGM - Productions. "Dancer of the Year 2007". Rgmz.cz. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  3. ^ A.D., Yemi. "Bio". Yemi AD. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  4. ^ Meisner, Scott. "Turbo T. Double drops ambitious "Atoms," directed by Kanye collaborator Yemi A.D." Experience it all. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  5. ^ Edwards, Chris. "The "Yemi Akinyemi's JAD Prague Dance Company and its Principal Dancer in Kanye West's "Runaway"" Appreciation Post". Musicnerdery.com. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  6. ^ Montgomery, James. "Kanye West's 'Runaway' Film: A High-Culture Cheat Sheet". MTV.com. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  7. ^ Day, Elizabeth (10 October 2010). "Kanye West: Mister Perfection is stylishly reinventing the rules of rap". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  8. ^ a b Vena, Jocelyn. "Kanye West Tweets 'Saturday Night Live' Shout-Outs". MTV.com. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  9. ^ West, Kanye. "Kanye West". Poptweets.net. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  10. ^ Morris, Andy. "100 things Kanye taught GQ". GQ-Magazine.co.uk. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  11. ^ Jaz, Hudba (12 May 2011). "Charlie Straight mají v klipu drsný Brooklyn i něžnou baletku". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  12. ^ Lukáš. "Megarozhovor s kapelou CHARLIE STRAIGHT!". Bravo.cz. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  13. ^ Nahoru. "Kapela Charlie Straight". Tyden.cz. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  14. ^ "Movies & Tv: Yemi AD - About This Person". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  15. ^ Mubi. "The Case of Unfaithful Klara". Mubi.com. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  16. ^ Meet the dearMoon Crew - Yemi.A.D. | イェミ・A・D, retrieved 10 December 2022
  17. ^ IMDB. "Runaway (2010)". IMDB.com. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  18. ^ Fain, Thom. "ACL in review: King Kanye takes the throne". Austin.culturemap.com. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  19. ^ Růžička, Michal. "Češi roku 2010" (PDF). MF Dnes. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
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