Jese Tuivoavoa was a student at Rotorua Boys' High School in New Zealand in 2004 when he first met Israel Adesanya. The two were in their early teens and were introduced by a mutual friend during physical education class.
Throughout his childhood, Adesanya had already been dancing. He learned the street dance "popping," similar to break-dancing, when he lived in Ghana for a short time before moving to New Zealand. And during that gym class, Tuivoavoa recalled Adesanya showing off some of those popping skills, doing "roundoff backflips on the mat area."
Tuivoavoa had never danced before, but he was immediately intrigued.