MEET JUMOKE: Dancing his way to health and happiness.

Jumoke Hill was one of the first to reach out to us in support of dancing free. The very first night our movement began in search of Dancing Man, he sent us a few videos of him dancing to hip hop and we immediately became fans. His story is very close to our hearts, and is a perfect representation of our mission. At one point in his life, Jumoke weighed over 600 pounds. He was bullied and put down for his size, and felt very ashamed to be himself in his own skin. Recently, he decided to stop caring what others think and just start dancing. We asked Jumoke to put together a story about himself to share with all of you about his experiences.

"Learning to accept and love myself has always been a challenge for me. As a child I was always the biggest kid in my class, always picked last for sports, always looked at differently from peers. I grew up thinking this was normal and I should just accept it. 

Over the years my weight had grown to over 600 pounds. I felt like my life had no purpose and that I was going nowhere.  As the years went by I started to believe all the negative things people would say about me. I even started saying some of those negative things about myself. 

One day I decided enough is enough and I would no longer let the opinions of others bring me down. I turned to my love of music, and to sing and to dance. I knew that i had more to offer to the world than just my weight. 

I knew that my weight was a big issue that wasn't going away anytime soon. So I decided to go on a weight loss journey. I wanted to take a situation that has been so negative in my life and turn it into a positive. 

Most of all I wanted to connect with and inspire people like me all around the world. I started writing songs about my journey and my struggle. I wrote songs like "Burger Rock!" And "I Hate You Food!" After that, I moved on to dancing. In the beginning, it was just all about the workout. Then I thought about it. Maybe if I posted some of my workouts online it could inspire others to love themselves no matter what. If you search the internet today you find a lot of different types of videos making fun of overweight people dancing. I wanted to change that. 

I named my videos "A Fat Guy Dancing" because I wanted to change that phrase from a negative undertone to a positive one. I've received so much support on these videos and in messages it's been awesome. I've even started shedding some pounds! It's so amazing what believing in yourself and having confidence can do. 

My journey is about me working to become healthy, not about me trying to fit into society standards. I will never dim my light again based on the opinion of others. 

Be brave, dance free, love yourself. We can do anything we put our minds to. I believe that!  

- Jumoke Hill"

Check out a couple of his YouTube videos below!