Coşkun Kenar aka Tuff Kid

Coşkun Kenar, alias Tuff Kid, is the son of Turkish immigrants. His parents, with origins in Yığılca in the province of Düzce, moved to Switzerland in 1968. Coşkun was born and raised in Basel, Switzerland. Growing up within two cultures, with all its benefits and difficulties, led him to deal with questions of identity at an early age. In his search for forms of expression, he discovered hip hop culture at the early age of twelve. He strongly identified with Breaking, discovering and developing his talent. As an autodidact, he practiced dancing intensively with the intention of growing beyond his physical limits on a daily basis. At the age of fourteen, he won his first Breaking competition. After participating in several prestigious European and World Championships, he soon established himself as one of the elite dancers worldwide. Coşkun performed in more than forty countries and participated as a competitor, judge and teacher in numerous world-renowned dance events. Besides competitions, performances and workshops, he danced in a wide variety of dance theater productions, including with the companies CHOREAM (F), MIR (CH), and as a solo artist. His crew «Basel City Attack“, based in Basel, Switzerland, led the way for the acceptance and inclusion of urban dance in theater productions. He performed for various international artists such as «The Black Eyed Peas», «Common and Co.» and industrial companies such as Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola and Red Bull. Acknowledged for inventing and popularizing dynamic breaking moves that have since become standard in the community, Coşkun is an inspiration to breaking dancers all over the world. This has made him one of the most influential and highly respected breaking dancers of his generation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through his curiosity and desire to evolve, Coşkun is continuously searching for new sources of inspiration and styles such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, popping and contemporary dance to further develop his movement language. Its guiding spirit is to fuse different forms of dance and movement, to carry out innovative interdisciplinary projects, and to promote artistic and cultural expression so that we can inspire each other and bring out the potential that lies within us all. In adding to his history as a dancer, Coşkun graduated as a rehabilitation trainer and medical training therapist in 2014. In 2016, he initiated the non-profit organization «the movement» with the vision of inspiring people to experience their potential through movement, dance, education and hip hop arts, as a way to make hip hop culture as an art form with its associated values accessible to a wide audience. The movement grew to a place where people of all ages meet, exchange experiences and share common values. Meanwhile the organization has twelve part-time employees and several volunteers to progress the vision and mission. In 2012 he received the highly coveted “Distinguished Talent” visa for Australia. He lived in Melbourne for a year and was hired for several dance projects and travelled the country. Coşkun is currently studying for his Master’s degree in ‘Expanded Theater’ at the University of the Arts Bern, where he was accepted through a ‘sur dossier’ procedure, showcasing his experience in the field, despite not having an academic background.

Please note that Coşkun recently changed his name to Coşkun Kenar, having taken on the name of his wife, formerly known as Coşkun Erdoğandan.