‘We almost forgot’ to show in Abuja
‘We almost forgot’ a dance production by Lagos-based choreographer, Qudus Onikeku, is set to show in Abuja next weekend. According to a release by the Head of Press and Cultural Affairs Department, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Abuja, Kornelia Bitzer-Zenner, the production is the latest creation of the artiste and falls within a […]
‘We almost forgot’ a dance production by Lagos-based choreographer, Qudus Onikeku, is set to show in Abuja next weekend.
According to a release by the Head of Press and Cultural Affairs Department, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Abuja, Kornelia Bitzer-Zenner, the production is the latest creation of the artiste and falls within a wider project around dance, initiated in May with the open-air audition, ‘Dancing Cities’ which held in Abuja.
She said: “It features six dancers and one actress of varied backgrounds and identities (Nigeria, Gabon, Morocco, Algeria, Madagascar & France). Through the use of high energy movements, story-telling, singing and music, the performance aims at questioning the past, present and body memory.”
“The idea,” Bitzer-Zenner said, “is to make a fiction of witness accounts of stories of individuals who have witnessed wars and crises and to evoke the capacity of our bodies to also keep the memory of traumas.”
The event which will hold at the National Universities Commission, along with an interactive session between the audience and the artiste on contemporary dance is a collaborative effort of the German Embassy, QDance Centre, the Institut Français du Nigeria and the Krump Dance Studios, to improve the exposure of contemporary dance in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja.
Onikeku is a graduate of The National Higher School of Circus Arts, France, where he practiced for 10 years before returning to Nigeria. He is known globally, for his solo works, writings and research projects and has won several awards including ‘Dancer of the Year’ (2009), October 2010, ‘Best solo performance’ (2010) for ‘My exile is in my head,’ the Africa-wide dance encounters ‘Danse l’Afrique danse’ in Bamako – Mali, and ‘New choreographic talent’ in France (2012).
Photo: Menzel-photography.com