A mixture of. Lagos nigeria population more than 20000000 a small group of dancers has arrived from germany they aim to create a new kind of ballet that will include the best of western and african influences. This creative adventure is led by choreographer richard segal. The dance studio is located behind a gas station in the middle of an Industrial Area the dancers know each other some of them met while the project was in the Development Stage others have danced on stage with siegel fee is. The beginning was incredible when it became i mean did it music loud or else the n. F. C. If they feel. Their energy is contagious i think their amazing. Choreography is done and redone and redone and weve done that mean its a volatile art form and at times its useful. Just to release some kind of Latent Energy which may still exist within the world. We have this downs thats choreographed we can teach you parts of we can modify parts of that but it shouldnt if its not just in one direction thats what im what im saying the important thing is exactly what just happened when we walked into the room and you guys were dancing and the music was good and we started going and everybody just started dancing and now im a sweaty mess and thats thats thats exactly. What we came for we have a situation where are we care and hybridize or as long as were open as long as we learn from one another as long as we are. Ready to translate and really see the other. Jimmy a few months earlier the ballet of difference company was Getting Started the Diverse Group of dances are among the best in the world some left prestigious Dance Companies to work with siegel. People have come to work people have come because theyre because theyre passionate about dancing in general and about down to together in this group specifically. And the ideas that are motivating. Siegal challenges the traditions and rules of classical ballet especially in his work you need text. From krypton. Shes. Trying for her album. For him. Around for fun fun just. The 2 terms ballet on one hand and difference on the other. Appear to be oppositional they appear to be oppositional. On one hand ballet. If i say that word it immediately elicits ideas of conservation and of and of heritage in coded in in an infile it art form something that really that really has contour. And on the other hand we have this idea of different thats the world that we live in today very very much so and its messy and its complex and its boundaries are not clear and its still forming its its a process its processing and its passionate and contained within it a lot of energy and putting these 2 things together of difference and ballet of conservation progression innovation and heritage. Meigs of friction. Thats thats thats not only very productive but i think its very necessary i think thats exactly what we need. Images of diversity images of coexisting. Images of power. Its a positive optimistic hopeful. Attitude toward our future. Of our art form and over society. That doesnt also discount perhaps the obligation for us as artists to also express the friction uncomfortable moment that were passing through as a society in our steps toward a more perfect future. In 22 of the Good Institution invited siegel to conduct a Dance Workshop in lagos that was the key point in the development to be. I was invited by the Good Institute to come and make something for their festival that they were that they were having there and they brought together a group of west african downstairs from all over and we were working in an old dilapidated printing factory in the middle of the city that was just one concrete open space. Of course there was a strong african. Flavor vocabulary in the piece and the traces of that are very much in the and in the ballet and what gives it that certain line thats very exciting to watch. What began as a workshop with African Dancers which i. I was making the movement and they were translating i our vocabulary that i underwent another translation process and ultimately became the ballet unit text. The public to the performance and so did the dancers but Richard Siegel choreography is a process so hes revising the case to bring it closer to his original concept. So i think the best thing to do would be to just actually kind of pair you up and what will end up doing is well have well have you know 2 people doing doing the same thing but then i think were going to start to make a little. Modifications to it i was as a as it goes. In my case i have frank to argue with frank who is a energy problem. And i think we have a completely different bodies so my body i realize working with him that its really a drag i can twist in a different direction and hes great even hockey is very strong so its that he he gets the steps in a different way sometimes and its a really interesting because i also dont speak french and when he speaks hes basically im trying to count in french for him and were all trying to translate basis just for the body so we dont know we all have a possibility to share it cards all that big we have a mix of. The. Shows we do mr x. For me to studios so when i see the flash it telecom oh do do others. Have to work for it every day that. Ballet its not natural like ok its turning out like they did saying all of that its not natural south it makes or saying. That she simply just its a little different because im more at home an African Dance afro dance. In the course i have a dance school in ivory coast i do performance as a choreographer and performer. But my dance is african afro dance afro beat and all that. With richard. Its very different with richard its classical contemporary afro japanese march choreography its japan. Europe. Africa a mixture of it. Just so. You know im watching them work right now its really interesting because such some of some of the vocabulary of you know textures is quite electric now its complex in classical ballet and by and large you always keep your shoulders over your hips fight like furtively and these styles of. Dancing african styles that are the 1st thing that i put on the imitating when im trying to do the steps is there is the posture of yourselves and of course the singers you bring your you or your shoulders in front of your it seemed to bend your knees and you then you and you lecture lecture but cold bath theres a lot of movement potential. Weve got this group of african drummers coming tomorrow and i think it would be really interesting among other things to do it would be to actually change music you know switch them years ago to see what happens and for that the best thing would be if we could push it a little bit further the choreography a little bit further so it felt more more secure before we swapped the music out. But siegel lives in madrid and travels to various european cities to work on your productions. That he 1st learned about afro caribbean danced in the late 1900 small study in new york. Be amongst himself in the citys dance culture and quickly realized the benefits to include. Versity couldnt bring to contemporary Dance Society had changed so fundamentally since he was stablished of classical ballet as it is still practiced in many places segal felt compelled to reflect this in his current opera face. So the 1st time we ran it with the drums i thought it was really on top of the of the counts anyway yes i know but in the council on the 2nd time i lost because it comes completely half way through because we have certain accents also in the electronic the yeah yeah i take as a cue yeah so. In the end i dont like caribbean part just came out. Of. The. Choreography that reflects todays multinational and multicultural societies that siegels trademark here in lancaster its easy to see how the contributions of dancers from diverse ethnic backgrounds can enhance a performance it doesnt matter where the dances were born they find a common language of artistic creation the blues old boundaries. The job he was the freedom of this president all experimental said what do you think you know like when you know it is bringing out the best in those. Could definitely one lets you do its just my piece this mouthpiece you know makes you think speech is not going to be signed so you dont like to come on like 3 you do anything of that now youre reviewing this into your piece thank you so much. Thank you i do expect you know that today in the coming days more and more to let their vocabulary. And churn and she got into the choreography 1st were starting here because it gives us a good. Scaffolding on which to hang the other or other rather graphic but im sure thats the way that its going to. Dancing its just been wings has been the way things are now and i just let me know like we have to make it seem to our community would then let the children we have a good sunday morning dance go from a show i teach getting off this or that i think that this will come on its also dances dances thats like. Thats just everything. Lagos is often disparaged as a sprawling dystopian cauldron of a city but it has a rich cultural scene with concerts and open air performances like this one honoring the life and work of afrobeat pioneer that you can change. To see a coexistence of life styles and death styles and of cultures out of that can share the stage when the. Only one who wanted to come from. Valley of difference does give expression to that form for for that diversity and openness of of. Spirit and curiosity about the other for everything you know frankly with without discriminating without making a hierarchy that these things can coexist thanks siegel recently staged the premiere at the new one a cool. Made for walking. Its an intimate chamber of play and like you need takes to music is based on african poly rhythms. Hes working with polly with them this which means that theres multiple resumes happening in the body at the same time and again its been a challenge i think for all of us to go through that door. Just because when you think of life ina musical dancer and this are very use of this sort of like rounded out 8 count or 3 4 1 to 4 or something thats very kind of measurable and these are all over the place and like a 5 and a 7 and 8 and a 3. And a half to kind of difficult so why keep it all in your head at the same time but at the same time its one of my scientific experiments a breakdown something that actually when actually occurs like he was saying and African Songs and dances and like natural rhythms but to sort of break it down into counts and so that we can visually kind of play with it yeah exactly in each of them in their in their bodies theyre describing to rhythms and then those 2 rhythms are combining with the other ones as well so we get even more called a rhythm i just figured ok as long as we have 3 out of 4 of the dancers here as long as made for walking based on the rhythm. Specifically african drum theory that its only fitting that we should we should experiment a bit well we have a big room full of drummers it is a school i dont think its just for the legs so you can connect and i see just just the hand phrase. Which. Yes its a language. And the language its only about. The talking drum talks and provide. The talk in german tells you when it wants you to move your hand when you once through to move your legs so we dont just dance with listening to do drama its like you wanted. To well i dont speak that language we needed a bridge there with a guy a smaller list like trying to. Be yourself. Thats really interesting listening to your own rhythm and being yourself and insisting on the integrity of your or. Your way in and in the world that just then he took that initiative was a very interesting choice for him to do you know you did not. Work as well sealed up so thats what we did we tried to remember right there and right then right there without the assistance of video. Some of the tiriel and remits actually do you know to restructure it. And on top of that we layer then as this live music to that. Today it became more incorporated in the body the things we learned the last 2 days yeah and all this all these speeds is just kind of a few. In my body with also the classical training because the last few days i was surfing bad for being a bit classical and then today it just all came together and i wasnt really judging it. To. Be. The drumming it was for made for walking was about. Being yourself about being yourself. And your own son still rooted in your own rhythm of the royal box. Of the ghost image its dont imitate him its just be yourself although you all day richard which is interesting because in the piece actually its a lot about following but its also a lot about leading at the seed in time and always trying to find this useful measure between leading and following and the question the central question is who who will lead if no one follows and who will follow if no one leaves when youre leading before for a new thing in fallujah odds it will show you for you if you watch is really if you want to make music if you want to make music yeah a. Fool would say. I like the idea of open and and like you just have let it happen and what also they add and said that you know oh let the lead. And let it affect you know. What can i do like going together a group of people of artists who share the attitude or at least we are cultivating the attitude were crying here. But trust me. Were in a position to be. In the world better. To repair the world. As one might say it is our obligation. The idea of repairing the world as it is its not mine i inherited that. This is my own tradition of my parents of the jewish tradition that i come out of to come along is that is the is the hebrew translation of of repairing the world. And i look at it and i want to own that i can decide what values i want to own the the idea of repairing the world yes its a grand notion but. You know whats happening whats wrong with having values we all have that power culture belongs to only the people who decide to own it. You speak to slam. This music during her son. To feel it coming. And does this take your heart racing. To come to the right place for. 30 minutes of my adult. Life like. Car culture. Hair. Color superman. Superfood stylish doggone. Let 06. Lifestyle during. The moment 60 minute. Song goes. Polls favor. The underline spectacular goals such plenty of the most reluctant to game day cut w. Cut. Use in germany to learn german and. Why not learn with them. Learning course nikos very. Carefully. Choose to do. Discover the. 11. Subscribe to documentary going to. Play. This is d w news live from berlin iran says it will no longer comply with any of the limits of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers these after the countrys top general was killed in a u. S. Drone strike on friday hundreds of thousands of iranians flooded city streets to mourn general custer. Also coming up a strenuous Deadly Wildfires right john a change in weather bring some relief bought a far hes a warning the danger for more bushfires could increase like to this week
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