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PresidentNiki and a Closer Look at Her Exceptional Dance Moves | @presidentniki TikTok
PresidentNiki is well-known on TikTok for her improvised dance moves
I certainly can call myself a late bloomer, and when something new emerges, miss me among the early adopters.
I don't have the shame of being called backward. A hard way to live in a trendy social media world. Things move fast these days, especially on TikTok and it is almost impossible to be fully updated.
I never knew how serious my situation was until early 2021. By then, PresidentNiki was already TikTok famous.
See More: PresidentNiki dance videos
My younger cousin was visiting; she is in her teens and knows her way through every corner of social media (and gadgets). At the same time, I was having my niece around; they are roughly the same age, and I anticipated some chaos running up and down, breaking things, and always something new to complain about. This time, it was different. Something caught my attention; I kept hearing the same snippet of a popular song, say 30 seconds of the hook part getting played in a loop. That went on and on for an hour, and I made a quick guess that a single video must have been played in a loop. But wait? What would be so interesting in a 30-second-long video that had the teens so quiet and playing on repeat? My curiosity got the better of me, and I investigated. Well, I did not expect to find them doing what they described as dancing.
Quite unusual moves but entertaining; anything new was is always entertaining if you are curious enough. I asked what with the 30-second songs being played on a loop, why not play the whole song- I noticed they were watching from tiktok the same dance moves they were trying to emulate. Curiosity got even the better of me, and they took me through a few scrolls, the same song, the same length but different remakes, so many countless remakes but different dance moves. I only regarded them as dance movies, given they were rhythmic with the music being played.
In a traditional sense, I do not have much of a dance move to me; in fact, I am so archaic that nothing outside ballet or medieval waltz would get into my books of dance moves. At first, I despised their dance moves as lazy and unoriginal- well, they were copying from somebody who probably copied from elsewhere. If you have interacted with tech-savvy teenagers, then you must be familiar with how resilient that lot is. Minutes later, I found myself trying to learn a trick or two ( I am only 25 years old). I did not want to be thought of as an old boomer. The complex arm and body movements, supposedly 15-30 seconds long, seemed like an uphill task for me. Well, I felt frustrated; it should not be that hard just to observe and copy. I gave up, but that was just the beginning of my obsession with these contemporary dance moves.
I had forgotten about that whole experience and have held a neutral take on the contemporary dances common in tiktok and YouTube reels.
Until recently, I came across this model, PresidentNiki.
I don't really remember what got me that far, but it had a lot to do with my rekindled flame for contemporary dance moves- not their actual name, but I will give that name.
Well, PresidentNiki is a Florida-based dance/curve model with a substantial following across social media.
She comes across as this naturally curvy woman, and even for a model, PresidentNiki has a principle against too much editing and -what do they call those accessories most models use to get that too-perfect hourglass figure? Something about body shape retouching- that is right.
PresidentNiki is a considerable internet figure. Being a content creator, she has amassed significant followership on social media, including Instagram and TikTok. I dug through her social media profile and something that caught my attention the most was her dance videos.
I would say there was so little editing, and the dance videos are in the raw recorded format, shorter than a minute. Well, that is not something new in TikTok, and there are so many reels. For someone who called herself a dancer, I thought to myself, well, this is new, perhaps so unusual, and what about those out-of-the-blues moves? I laughed it off at first. You have to bear in mind I am a very conservative type, and any time I come out of the cave, the internet always slaps me with something so opposite to what my beliefs are deeply embedded in. Well, I am not much of a dance enthusiast, but from the moment I saw PresidentNiki's first video, I knew this was nothing like what I had envisioned as dancing.
For so many complaints and trying to contemplate what has become of dancing these days, I was on the fifth, maybe tenth, time rewatching the loop. Instead of hitting that exit button, I found myself scrolling through uncountable videos. Two hours later, I admitted that maybe the artistry in PresidentNiki work was not what I approved of, but the creativity and out-the-blues moves made it more entertaining and convincing to repeat the loop. Hours later, I would watch other viral dance videos. I am not quite familiar with the trends then. I have done more than enough embarrassing this far; I don't want to look out of touch any more than I have already done. But I remember seeing some names like Charli D'Amelio and other notorious dance content creators or how they refer to themselves these days.
PresidentNIki and Ellie The Empress
This whole experience brought back the memory of the day I was having my niece and teenage cousin around. Well, they were thrilled and excited enough to want to teach and showed me how cool these dance moves were. I retorted that I was a little too old for that, and it seemed to me like a thing for teens. You know I lost that argument. I was shown renowned celebrities and singers like Dua Lipa and Shania Twain doing their thing.
Well, What I had just despised had that much influence and was more popular than Ballet dances and other carefully choreographed and trained dances. I then asked why they were that popular; some of the dance moves were rather too suggestive for a formal occurrence. To me, they seem like they belong right on the phone. My teen specialist educated me that the whole point of the dances and how popular they have grown was how easy they are to learn. My niece said it would take less than an hour to learn a new dance move, create a remake, and share it for others to see. The point was creating that universality. I would ask, is there any artistry about coping with what someone else has already done, and is a remake probably being done by millions of followers? You guessed right, nobody wants to be Michael Jackson with the moonwalk here but rather become a part of the entire world that identifies with the same choreography, and that was that.
My view on these contemporary movies was stuck at little about creativity and more about trying to fit in and identify with a viral trend, far from talent and creativity in my books. But as far as entertainment goes, they are very entertaining. That was until I saw PresidentNiki's work. My favorite video or work has to be a compilation, which she did and posted on her exclusive content website. For starters, it is not the regular 30-60 seconds long video common in Instagram reels or tiktok videos. This was, let's say, the song's length and video. As her name suggests, it did not take long for me to tell that she draws a lot of inspiration from Nicki Minaj; this is evident even in the audio track she uses.
PresidentNiki dance video
What Make PresidentNiki Videos Different?
In my particular video of interest, PresidentNiki is using "Only" by Nicki Minaj, Drake, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne. Well, for those who have watched the original Only video ( who hasn't in 2024? If anything, I am the only one who is from the cave), Nicki Minaj did great work showing feminine power. Nicki ( yes, the singer Nicki) did a good work praising and showing the butt, there are a lot of twerks to go around, and Nicki's dominance over men and her body is evident. There is that carefree spirit she lets herself be in total control. The video had over one Billon view at the time of this writing. That gives a snapshot of what we should expect of PresidentNiki work. A slight remake of the original Only video. The answer is yes but no. Yes, in the sense that, like Nicki Minaj, she tries to show her control and prowess over the body, but not in the sense that she adds her own creativity and brings in something new and not just copied dance moves.
The first thing I have to give PresidentNiki credit for is her choice of costume, and you know the rule when doing videos: you have to dress in a theme. The song itself is meant to be sexual and naughty; choosing a nice set of bikinis was a good starting point; there is no Nicki without ass bubbling, and PresidentNiki emulated this with her own creative moves. The video is nowhere near perfect, but that is the cost of originality and creativity. You can tell she did not have it professionally scripted. Even a novice would notice her losing balance and making a mistake here and there. If you don't find that inspiring, I don't know what to say. See, personally, with the help of two experts and an original video to copy from, I did not make it to the point of doing even a five-second work.
In the second video, which was by far an Improvement to "Only," PresidentNiki must have done a lot of rehearsal prior. In this video, she is performing "Bottoms Up," also by Nicki Minaj and Trey Songz. The original video is explicit and erotic- you can never expect less of Nicki Minaj anyway. So, our president Nicki has this booty short, and she is extremely bubbly twerking. I also noticed she has improved significantly with her legwork. There is even something more entertaining about her hand moves. She has also improved her body movement to sync with the rhythm of the beats. I kept questioning if there was scripting and planning involved in this video. I had to rewatch the original video to identify any traces of borrowed work, but, hey, to my surprise, it was all original. I almost forgot her cartoonish expression to rhyme with Nicki Minaj's verse and rap.
The next in line was her performance on Barbie Dreams, also by Nicki Minaj. Well, I have to admit the previous video had set the tempo and the bars so high, and this particular one did not meet those standards. But isn't that what creativity does to even the finest artists? An entire album and only a single song ended up being a hit song; PresidentNiki did well with the costume. I noticed that there was a possibility that the two videos were done on the same day; she must have been weary and tired by the time she got to the second one. But we have to give her all the credit, and it is the confidence and creativity that carries the day. A lot of people lack either.
So, back to what we started, what does contemporary dance mean? In my opinion, save for the part they have to shorten these dance performances to under one minute, and there is a great deal of creativity to draw from them. Looking at PresidentNiki's work, the raw passion for creativity with no traces of professional creativity means that even people who grew up in the remotest countryside have the same chances of standing out as those who grew up in big cities full of opportunities. I think this is a great revolution as far as dancing goes. For a considerable time in history, dances were considered an elite thing. It was part of a lifestyle that the rich and the prosperous could afford to pay for training and to get a platform to show their talents.
Thinking about it now, I am starting to believe while works like that of PresidentNiki might lack the artistry effects attributed to conventional dances, they show raw talent and creativity.
See, in the past, whoever ended up performing in front of a large audience was a product of so many people who came together to plan and organize the final show. Where is the pride in a dancer whose success is more than half attributed to whatever help and support they got externally? What did it mean for the talented dancers who had no opportunities?
PresidentNiki and Ellie The Empress, on location in Florida
Right now, as I scroll through TikTok or Instagram reels, I get to see a lot of younger cousins trying to get the confidence to showcase their passion to the bigger world social media presents to them. Soon enough, their confidence level would outgrow having to remake already-done videos and dance moves, and they would start focusing on being creative, just like PresidentNiki.
There is a catch, though; let us face it: PresidentNiki is a model with natural curves; she is one confident soul who would not seek additional editing to her videos or appearances to make her more enticing to the fun. That is her main strength, but our younger cousins are not having it easy. You see, even for average dance moves, good dressing choices go a long way; PresidentNiki, being a model, can never go wrong when it comes to choosing what to wear before showing us those style moves. For most aspiring dances, getting the right attire and blending them perfectly to make both an entertaining and admirable video are two different struggles. That is exactly what kills the confidence, which is much needed even for an amateur dancer to stand out.
Nonetheless, I have watched a video of Lizzo and her crew doing the Renegade dance. In terms of artistry work, there was not much to speak of, but seeing how the crew was having fun and totally immersed, it must have been more fun learning the dance moves together. Watching the video made me want to stretch my patience to, say, half an hour and learn a move or two. The feeling of universality is a form of entertainment itself. Keeping tabs with the latest choreography, even if copied, is an easy-to-do hobby. So next time, if your teenage relative seems to be giving you earworms from those endless replays and audio loops, cut them some slack.
If possible, join in and have fun!
