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With years of experience in the Philippine dance industry, coach Vimi Rivera proves that passion can be turned into a sustainable career.
Under the bright lights of the Mullett Arena at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona, Filipino dance crew Legit Status executed a flawless four-minute routine. It was a sight to behold: every member appeared to move as an extension of the others. It was explosive, powerful — and most importantly, it earned them the title of World Champions.
In August earlier this year, Legit Status topped the MegaCrew Division of the 2025 World Hip Hop Dance Championships.
And to make matters even sweeter, their team competing in the JV MegaCrew Division also won the bronze medal. This meant that all the 75 members of Legit Status who flew to the United States came back home with a medal.
This left Vimi Rivera, the head coach of Legit Status, who formed the group sixteen years ago, with a very rewarding feeling. But he admitted that reaching this milestone was a big challenge — even more challenging than their first World Championship win in 2023.
The crew’s victory in Arizona this year marked their second gold-medal finish in the World Hip Hop Dance Championships. Two years earlier, they had already set that benchmark.
“I must say the second one was a lot more challenging because [it wasn’t] just about dreaming that you can be a world champion, it’s knowing that you can, and sometimes, that kind of standard that you put on a pedestal could be very, very taxing,” Vimi told The GAME.
“For the first one, you just want to keep pushing it because we hadn’t [won] it yet. Next one should be a balance of not overstressing, of not reaching your full potential… Because now, it’s literally just gold or nothing, because you’ve set such a high standard already.”
When you’ve reached champion status, the ceiling only rises higher and higher.
The road less traveled
Vimi Rivera always knew he could dance, but he only ever started “training formally” when he was a second-year student at UP Diliman and joined their street dance club. It wasn’t a varsity team, but they competed consistently.
He enjoyed it, of course, but he never planned on doing competitive dance long-term. Like any other college student, he viewed it as an extracurricular. But towards the end of his stay at UP, he started to work part-time, assisting other dance coaches.
“By chance, I was invited by both [Assumption College] students and [La Salle Greenhills] students who were part of their dance clubs to coach them,” he reflected.
“Initially, I was hesitant because I was graduating already, so I was thinking I’d rather focus on what I actually want to do after college. But since it was my senior year, and my load wasn’t as demanding, I had time. So I said yes to coaching both.”
Little did he know that what he initially viewed as a simple way to earn a little bit of income on the side (a plus for a graduating student) would lead him to a life dedicated to dance.
“I did not plan on [coaching] for this long,” he admitted. “But I just decided there on, I’ll just enjoy it and see where this leads me. I knew for a fact it wasn’t going to be sustainable. But that’s when I decided to try to figure out how this could be more economical and practical. So I studied the business side of dance.”
Turning one’s passion into one’s career can be tough, especially in the arts — but Vimi was able to make it happen, and a huge part of it is due to the success and exposure he’s earned through Legit Status.
Setting the stage
A big part of Vimi Rivera’s goals as a dancer was competing internationally, and this was his biggest motivation when he established Legit Status in 2009.
“I was still in college when I formed Legit Satus. It was specifically to join an international competition, which is the World Hip Hop Championship (HHI),” he recalled. “As a competitor, you’d want to have a chance to compete internationally, which in college, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to have a chance. But I wanted to experience it.”
Vimi sat down to do his research, and he discovered that the competition he was eyeing had a younger category called the Varsity Division. He saw this as a doorway. Given his position during that time, coaching two high school teams, he merged members from both, sought out the support of their parents, and submitted an audition video.
“Thankfully, we were approved. And that started Legit Status…[We had] no long-term goals, it was really just to experience it…and I knew that my top dancers could really compete against the best of the best in the world.”
Though they performed well in 2009 and even reached the finals, they would have to wait a few more years before they’d be able to enjoy their winning moment. In Vimi’s words, it took “years of heartbreaks.”
But as the years passed, new additions started to arrive. After Legit Status started opening auditions to the public, they started to attract older members who’d already graduated from college, and that opened the opportunity to compete in the MegaCrew Division of the HHI.
This made it even more exciting for Vimi.
“Number one, you’re bringing in really talented dancers with different backgrounds, so now the group is starting to be a melting pot of different characters, backgrounds…And then, I think from 2015 to 2017 is when we started really establishing our name in the industry.
“[From] 2015 to 2017 is when we started getting invited for corporate events, and not just school events. So that’s when — I think 2017 is our next transition into exploring the professional side of dance for the group.”
Their growth as a team continued, but with their expansion, they were taking on more than just competitions. Legit Status started to engage in partnerships, events, invites, and features, doubling down on the strong foundation they had already established as a team.
It was what Vimi had wanted after he graduated from UP: a way to make dance sustainable and economical.
And things only got bigger after they were named World Champions.
Earning their status
Despite the “years of heartbreak” Vimi Rivera and the Legit Status dancers had endured competing in the World International Hip Hop Dance Championships, he also noted that there was no better time for their first win.
“I think it was the perfect timing also because the world stood still for so long [due to the pandemic]. So whatever you built, at least in our industry, from when we started doing this professionally up until the pandemic, I must say, was slightly forgotten during that period,” he recalled.
But in 2023, the dance crew would earn an even higher status in the Philippine dance community.
Competing in the MegaCrew Division of the World International Hip Hop Dance Championships, Legit Status bested a pack of seven dance groups, featuring some of the best dancers from around the globe, to earn the title of World Champions.
It was an incredibly surreal feeling, especially for coach Vimi Rivera, who founded this team fourteen years earlier.
“We try to get better, system-wise, every year…Sometimes the effort is successful, sometimes it’s not, but bottom line, end-year assessment, when we start another season, we address it.”
Eventually, it paid off.
“Nothing beats the first championship,” he looked back. “It took so long before the first one…Now it’s not just about dreaming that you can be a world champion, it’s knowing that you can.”
Unsurprisingly, the victory and title of “World Champions” elevated Legit Status’ reputation in the Philippines. All of a sudden, business started to boom.
“Although it took so long before we won a world championship, I must say, at least for us, that was the perfect timing because the exposure, the visibility, the demand was there. You can be super exposed and visible, but if the demand is not there, there’s no sense in it.
“So we’ve had so many partnerships, events, invites, features that obviously doubled down more on what we already had, which was the world championship. And that has been consistent, sustainable.”
The business of movement
When Vimi Rivera first formed Legit Status, he came across several dancers who would coach for a few years before shifting to other careers. Though this still happens now, the longtime coach has noticed that there are more dancers now who are not only willing to do this full-time, but who are able to make it a career.
This is largely due to the growing demand for dance in the Philippines.
“Overall, I think it’s very obvious now that dance has grown exponentially, both in the arts, and participation, and exposure,” he explained. “TV commercials, TV shows, any launch or corporate event would have, as a form of entertainment, dance. Not just street dance.”
Vimi also happens to be the UAAP Streetdance Competition Commissioner, and he’s also seen how big dance has grown in the collegiate community.
“Before, we’ve had events that could fill up MOA Arena or Araneta Coliseum. Now, that’s the goal again…
“That alone, you can see the exponential growth of dance, which, in turn, is also very economical and practical…Which makes dance professionals do it for a longer period of time, and not just shift to another career because it’s not working out.”
Vimi once thought he wouldn’t stick to dancing for a long period of time; but clearly, he’s done something right along the way to continue pursuing his passion — and successfully, at that, as his team can now call themselves two-time World Champions.
His secret? He had to understand his audience.
Dance can come in many forms, and we’re not just talking about genres; we’re also talking about people’s relationship with the art. Some people want to dance competitively, others want to use it as a form of exercise, others might just want to watch dance as a spectator or fan. With how big dancing has grown, there are now many ways to interact with it, and for Vimi, it’s all a balancing act.
“It’s really understanding that from clients to audience to actual dancers, non-dancers alike, there are different demands. But as a professional, it’s your responsibility to figure it out. Because ultimately, for them to digest and to enjoy what you’re performing or delivering, it’s up to you to understand what level of appreciation they’re in to make it effective.”
When Vimi started Legit Status, he didn’t know all this yet. In fact, hardly anybody did. At the time, dance was not yet what it is today, and turning it into a practical endeavor took a lot of trial and error. As he shared, “[It was about] deciding my own lane, setting up a blueprint that I must say has been followed by a lot of my peers, which is great.”
Sixteen years later, he is leading one of the Philippines’ most successful and well-known dance crews.
Turning one’s passion into a profitable way of life isn’t always easy, but Vimi Rivera and Legit Status are proving that it is possible.
“I wanted to keep coaching because more than the artistry, more than being competitive…It’s the connection with the students. I don’t want to sound too deep in terms of ‘calling’ and all that, but that really is the reason.
“So I’ve used excellence in teaching and dancing to really be effective as an influence to my students…And given that I figured out a way to keep this sustainable, I was able to keep coaching for a very long time.”
Images taken by Kim Angela Santos of KLIQ, Inc.