Keiva

"I am back in full force," says dancer Keiva the Diva, who has deserted her spike heels for her well-worn sneakers alongside her former crew, Cosmic, Dancers, to rock the dancehall world.

After taking a brief sabbatical from hard-core dancing to work on developing her store, Keiva's Closet, Keiva has reunited with the Cosmic Dancers to hit the streets again. Known as one of the fore- runners when it comes to female dancers, for the last two years Keiva has kept quieter than usual where dancing and music videos are concerned. Now, however, she plans to blaze the dancing arena which she says has become boring.

According to her, she was a member of the popular Cosmic Dancers during 2003-2004, touring and dancing alongside them until the members went their separate ways. She, however, recently reunited with the crew, Ricardo Richards and André Maddens, and was at rehearsal when she spoke with THE STAR.

She said, "To be honest, I never stopped dancing, dancing it's my life, it's my hobby, it's my passion. Is dancing mek me can buy a car and start a store but people keep coming to me and asking 'Keiva why yuh stop dancing?' But I only took a break to start my business and get it off the ground, which I have done."

Feels confident

Keiva says she feels her store is in good hands, having hired a capable assistant, and she feels confident that if she decides to start touring again, her store will only continue to flourish. She said: "The artistes are very upset wid me, saying mi stop dance, cause dem know I'm a person who, when I go into the streets and go dance, everybody dere a stand up, a mi start the dance, me and Cosmic go into Fresh Fridays wah day and start di dance. I'm a brave person and people respect that, so my space in the video light is always there."

Thus far, Cosmic Dancers has been rehearsing on a daily basis, creating new, yet-to-be-named dance moves that reflect an old-school style of dancing. Since she re-immersed herself into dancing, Keiva has created a new dance called 'Sexy Mama' and has music videos with Spice, Voicemail, RDX among others in the making. Keiva and the Cosmic Dancers will also be making appearances on a number of RDX shows.

"We're doing crazy rehearsals; different stuff cause now everyone is doing the same thing, no real dancing is out there again, dancing nah go on wid nutten again. I have to go out there and represent for the females. Already, there are few around wid only persons like Dance Xpressions doing dere ting. We coming out wid new things and people must look out for it," she said.

Keiva shows off one of the boots sold in her store. - File photos