William Adja

ADJA William, whose artist name is Eldjine, was born on 31 December 1999 in Lomé into an animist family. His mother was a priestess and traditional dancer. She often danced blekété, gbékon and agbadja. Even at the age of 5, William accompanied his mother to ceremonies, rituals and traditional festivals to dance. It was in this way that he nurtured his love of dance over the years. In 2012, William discovered another style of dance, hip-hop, and fell in love with it. That same year, he decided to join Street King, his very first dance group. As a member of Street King, he took part in numerous national and international urban dance competitions. The group was international champion of the Moov dance crew in Benin in 2017. In 2018, he was international champion of Couleur Vacances in Burkina Faso.  Building on his talent, William was recruited in 2014 to be one of Togolese singer Almok’s dancers. In 2020, William took his very first contemporary dance course, the DTCA (Danse Traditionnelle et Création d’Aujourd’hui). Immediately afterwards, he never stopped looking for and creating training opportunities for himself. Until he finished Don Sen Folo’s 3-year multidisciplinary training course ‘Corps pour XXIIe siècle – acte II’ in Bancoumana, Mali. 

According to William, the impossible only exists in the mind, so he’s ready at a moment’s notice to put his intentions into practice. He recently performed in Bienvenue Bazié and Moïse Touré’s Révélation (part of Don Sen Folo’s Corps pour XXIIe siècle training programme) and in Abdoulaye Konaté’s Mélopée ô berceau for the Fari Foni Watti #8 festival in Bamako, Mali.