The Leadership Dance
Ep. 39: Choreographing with Changemakers, with Yemi Dele Akinyemi
Host: Alissa Hsu Lynch | Release Date: April 13, 2026
Episode Overview
In this episode, Alissa Hsu Lynch sits down with Yemi Dele Akinyemi—Czech-Nigerian entrepreneur, artist, and founder of Moonshot Platform—to explore the intersections of art, leadership, and social change. Yemi shares his journey from growing up as the only Black child in a Czech city during the communist era, to becoming a celebrated choreographer, advocate for youth empowerment, and a driver of innovation in arts, technology, and social entrepreneurship.
Together, they discuss the concept of embodied leadership, the importance of heart-led decision making, nurturing young changemakers, the synergy between structure and freedom, and why robots need to learn to dance. Yemi gives candid insight into working with Kanye West, leveraging AI in creativity, and offers practical leadership lessons gleaned from his dance career.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Embodied Leadership: Moving from Head to Heart
- Yemi's Perspective: Leadership must bridge the gap between intellect and emotion. Over-reliance on logic (“neck up”) results in transactional, extractive leadership. True impact comes from aligning head, heart, and gut.
- Quote:
"The hardest distance we will ever have to cross is the distance between our head and our heart… If we only use our head, our leadership becomes transactional. But when we allow and consult our decisions also with our heart and our guts, our intuition, it starts to be leadership based in values."
— Yemi, (00:07), (21:56)
2. Roots: Growing Up as an Outsider & Finding Strength in Difference
- Context: Yemi was born in communist Czechoslovakia, the only Black child in his city, with a Nigerian father separated during a political revolution. He navigated a childhood marked by social isolation but drew resilience and self-acceptance from these experiences.
- Quote:
"When you are small, you don't see yourself different… until someone tells you, you don't belong here, or you go back to Africa. I would look at myself in the mirror—I was like, this is you, this is who you are, and it's great."
— Yemi, (07:40)
3. Art as Self-Expression and Service
- Dance as Language: Yemi’s introduction to dance stemmed from a love of music and as a means to connect with others, not a career choice.
- Navigating Dualities: He discusses the tension between crafting art for oneself vs. serving others’ visions (clients, commercial campaigns), and finding a coherent personal style within those constraints.
- Quote:
"You can be in service of something or someone… Or you can self-express… These two worlds, they overlap, but they are not the same... How do these two worlds coexist without parasitizing on each other?"
— Yemi, (13:49-15:48)
4. Highlights from Working with Kanye West and Artistic Growth
- Memoir-worthy Moments: Yemi shares how a chance opportunity in Prague led to choreographing for Kanye, evolving from small collaborations to five years of global work.
- Creative Challenges: The pressure and privilege of innovating for a visionary artist, managing last-minute changes, and personal growth through creative adversity.
- Quote:
"With Kanye… you can't just do choreography like other artists—he would have a heart attack from that. We really needed to be naked in our artistry."
— Yemi, (18:13)
5. Moonshot Platform: Empowering the Next Generation
- Mission: To give young people a seat at the table for shaping their own future, providing support, mentorship, and acceleration at the inception stage.
- Success Stories:
- Chantal Zuzi: Albino refugee in Uganda, now running a sanctuary for other girls.
- Mateusz Bohacek: Developed AI for sign language translation, went on to Stanford and AI research.
- Miklosunario: Indonesian innovator in educational AI, now shaping national AI policy and tackling food security.
- Quote:
"I built [Moonshot] for maybe 16 to 18 year version of myself... I feel like there are so many young people who have brilliant ideas and we are not listening."
— Yemi, (24:22)
6. The Role of Structure and Freedom in Dance—and Leadership
- Creative Process: He reflects on the necessity of boundaries to facilitate creative expression, illustrated by a ballet piece Bohemian Gravity and the realities of inherited cultural limits.
- Organizational Parallels: The concepts learned in the dance studio, such as collective improvisation (flocking), translate directly to leadership in organizations.
- Quote:
"If you want to do a wave in the ocean, it's really hard—because the ocean is oceanic. But if you have a pool and you create walls, you can make a wave. In dance, you have to create limitations."
— Yemi, (42:12)
7. Human-Centered Robotics and the Future of Creativity
- Robotics & Dance: Advising humanoid robotics company Apptronic to make robots move more humanly, teaching them the language of nonverbal communication.
- Technology’s Ethical Frontier: The importance of designing with intention:“How intentionally will we be designing those humanoid robots? Will they elevate our humanity or put us on a sidetrack?” (38:00)
- AI as a Tool: Embracing AI in creative workflows, seeing it as an equalizer, especially for those with learning differences like dyslexia.
8. Rapid Fire Insights & Lifestyle
- Discipline vs. Intuition: “Intuition.” (32:01)
- Grounding Habit: “Breath work.” (32:04)
- Favorite Travel Spots: “Bali… and Prague.” (32:06-32:08)
- Jet Lag Remedy: Adjusting time zones immediately, hydration (IV drips), supplements, light exposure, and exercise (32:16-33:09).
- Music to Dance To: Eclectic algorithmic playlists (“I love my algorithmic Spotify playlist... classical music, Afrobeats, cinematic music.”) (33:59, 34:42)
- Thoughts on AI-Generated Music: Finds it empowering and creatively liberating, especially for non-instrumental musicians.
9. Closing Advice for Changemakers
- Quote:
"Care less about what other people think. Fight for truth first—the inner fight before the outer fight. And remember that courage is a gateway to a great life."
— Yemi, (45:11)
Notable Quotes
- On Leadership and Wholeness:
"Our mind is telling us how to do it, our heart is telling us what to do."
— Yemi, (23:43) - On Mentorship and Belief:
"One mentor has changed my life when I was young... I'm so grateful that you came on board and did that for other young people."
— Yemi, to Alissa (23:54) - On Structure and Innovation:
"Your freedom ends where someone else's freedom starts. When the freedom is unlimited, it's not good for anyone. Same for the dance.”
— Yemi, (44:00)
Timestamps for Key Segments
- Embodied Leadership Defined: (00:07, revisited at 21:56)
- Childhood and Identity: (04:26–09:17)
- Discovery of Dance and Creative Beginnings: (10:48–13:25)
- Commercial Artistry & Kanye West Stories: (13:49–20:31)
- Moonshot Platform’s Purpose & Success Stories: (23:51–29:51)
- Getting Involved with Moonshot: (31:00)
- Lightning Round – Yemi’s Habits & Hobbies: (31:44–34:42)
- On Robotics, AI, and Human-Centered Technology: (36:01–39:10)
- Structure vs. Freedom in Art & Leadership: (39:45–45:03)
- Advice to Young Self: (45:11)
Tone & Episode Highlights
The episode’s tone is candid, compassionate, and deeply inquisitive—full of stories about overcoming adversity, finding meaning in both structure and improvisation, and empowering the next wave of leaders. Key takeaways revolve around authenticity, value-driven leadership, creativity’s universal language, and a call to courage for anyone charting new territory.
Useful Links
- Moonshot Platform: www.moonshotplatform.org