Its japan. Europe africa a mixture of. Lagos nigeria population more than 20000000 a small group of dancers has arrived from germany they and to create a new kind of ballet that will include the best of western and african influences. This creative invention 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 is. The beginning was incredible then became a musical out on. The n. F. C. If they felt. Their energy is contagious i think theyre amazing. Choreography is done. And redone and weve done it redone its a volatile our form at times its useful. To see release some kind of Latent Energy which may still exist within the world. We have this doubts that choreograph we can teach parts of we can modify parts of that but it shouldnt its not just in one direction thats what im what im saying the important thing is exactly what has 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. Thats exactly. What we came for we have a a situation where we can 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. Gemini 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 dancing 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. Or phone number she says but are concerned for herself and. Not for an. Around. 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 thats 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 its still forming its its 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 and progression of innovation and heritage. And megs of friction. Thats a thats thats not only very productive but i think its very necessary i think thats exactly what we need. d images of diversity images of coexistence. Images of power. Its a positive optimistic hopeful. Attitude toward our future. Of our art form a number society. That doesnt also discount perhaps the obligation for us as artists to also express friction uncomfortable moment that were passing through as a society in our steps toward a more perfect future. In 22 of the girls the institution invited siegel to conduct a Dance Workshop in lagos that was a key point in the development of these major would. 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 build lap attainted printing factory in the middle of the city that was just one concrete open space. Of course there was a strong african its 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 has very exciting to watch. What began as a workshop with African Dancers which. I was making the movement and they were translating my vocabulary then i underwent another translation process and ultimately became the ballet you know text. The public 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 a ghost. In my case i have frank i have to argue with frank who is a energy bomb. And i think we have a completely different bodies of so my body and i realize working with him that its really a bag i can twist in Different Directions and hes creating a lock its a 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 as well trying to translate basis just for the body so we dont know we all have a possibility to just share it chords all that big we have a microphone. To. Chose between districts fully studios so when i was in the flat it meant oh oh oh they do do other things i. Have to work for it every day dad. Ballet its not natural like its turning out like they did saying all of that its not a natural salad it makes or saying. That she simply just its a little different because im more at home in African Dance afro dance. In the quarter i have a dance school in ivory coast so 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. That. You know im watching them work right now its really interesting to some some of some of the vocabulary of you know textures is quite a letter now lets hope that in classical ballet by and large you always keep your shoulders over your hips fight like vertically. In these styles of. Dancing african styles and what the 1st thing that im that im imitating what im trying to do the stats is there is the posture of yourselves and of course as soon as you bring your you or your shoulders in front of your its and you bend your knees and you than you and you lecture and measure but those bags theres a lot of movement potential. Who 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 the music you know switch the music out 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. Simple lives in madrid and travels to various european cities to would productions. He 1st learned about afro caribbean danced in the late 1900 small study in new york. Immersed himself in the city status culture and quickly realized the benefits that pete. Versity could bring to contemporary Dance Society had changed so fundamentally since you establishment of classical ballet as it is still practiced in many places segal felt compelled to reflect this in its current opera faith. So the 1st time we ran it with the drums i thought it was really on top of the of the counts anyway so its kind of in the council and the 2nd time i lost it becomes completely halfway through because we have certain accents also in the electronic the yeah yeah i take as a q yes so. In the end i dont see my caribbean part just came out. Of. The. Choreography that reflects todays multinational and multicultural societies that siegels trademark here in lagos 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 pulled boundaries. The job he was the freedom of this president ial experimental sailor what do you think you know be it like bring it out to bring it all the best in those. Could definitely one lets you do it that though despite this mouthpiece you dont mess with seats because its not going to be something so you like to come on like 3 you do anything like that but now you are bringing game this into your piece thank you so much. Thank you and i do expect that you know that today in the coming days more and more to let their vocabulary. Enter into into the choreography course 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 dance in the space between the wings has been always in danger and i just let me know like we have to make it seem to our community would have to chill down we need to get in there more and dance to go from a show i teach getting us all to this so that i think that this will come on its also dances dances thats life thats good thats everything. Lagos is often disparaged as a sprawling to Start Playing cauldron of a city but it has a rich cultural scene with concerts an opening at performances like this one honoring the life and work of afro beat time and then you can change. To see a coexistence of lifestyles and of death styles and of cultures. Back and share the stage then the. Only morning call from. Ballet of difference does give expression to that form for for that diversity and openness of of. Spirit and curiosity about the other or everything like you know frankly with without discriminating without making a hierarchy that these things can coexist. Siegel recently stage the premiere at the new one a cool. Made for walking. Its an intimate change of play and like unique takes the music is by some 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 new so this sort of like rounded out 8 count or a 34 1 24 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. Its kind of difficult so why keep it all in your head at the same time but at the same time its been a nice scientific experiment so break down something that actually naturally 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 you know 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 the rhythm just figured ok as long as we have 3 out of 4 of the dancers here as long as made for walking is based on the rhythm. Specifically african drum theory that its only fitting that we should we should experiment a bit while we have a big room full of drummers do this is for you i dont believe just for the legs so can i can i see just just the hand phrase yeah. Yeah. Yeahs its a language. The language its all about. The talking the drum talks and crowbar. The talking german tells you when it wants you to move your hand when no one suits or move your legs so we dont just dance with listening to drama its like a warning as to what i dont speak that language we need a bridge there with a guy small its like trying to tell people to be yourself. Types thats really interesting listening to your own rhythm being yourself and insisting on the integrity of your or. Your way in and in the world that then he took that initiative was a very interesting choice for him to say oh you didnt know. What you were sealed up so thats what we did we tried to remember her right there and right then right there without the assistance of video of. Some of the tiriel and remits actually to you know to restructure it. And on top of that we layer then as this live music to. Try. To they became more incorporated in the body of 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 so i feeling 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 right about being yourself. And dance to your own son still really in your own rhythm box yeah. Him idiots dont imitate him its just be yourself and follow your own direction which is interesting because in the piece actually its a lot about following but its also a lot about leading up to saving time and always trying to find this people 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 the same way before if were going to do that were going to follow up lots of people show you for you if your boss is really cool if you want to make music if you want to make music yeah then. Do the same theory. I like the idea of open and and let me just let it happen and what also all of a adam said that you know oh let the. And i cant help and let it affect you. What can i do i can grin together a group of of people of artists who share the attitude or at least we are cultivating the attitude were trying theyre trying. Where in a position to be making the world better. To repair the world. As one might say it is our obligation. The idea of repairing the world 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 like it and i want to own that i can decide what values i want to own and 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 our culture belongs to only the people who decide to own it. Are they friends. Or are they not enemies and i never heard of her i just. Donald trump and the flooding here prove our 2 part documentary analyzes the difficult relationship between russia and the man and between their president s how does their rivalry and their dangerous mutual admiration affect the rest of the moment. Bosom bullies. In 15 minutes on d w. A new era has become. A fire going. Believe me. This being a mum our use of. The reasons are still there from a slum slums that consumes forests and entire residential areas for sleep. Raising temperature water shortages lens clearance theres an abundance of flammable material ones are going to. Stop the flood or some other someone is going up against the lead blowby consideration the world on fire starts aug 12th g. W. How is your view of the low. When i come from the oh is that it does this go it just like this chinese fluids does measure away i am always reminds me a cold after decades of living in germany chinas food is one of the things i miss the most but that taking a step back i see things i need to differentiate knowledge. Then of fluids processing articulations that exist as a part of the whole havent been and the men said that in china thats new not to chinas people wondering if their foot is safe to live but if people have a right to another culture that is this is the job of just under the my how i see it and at the same why ive been up to my job because i tried to do it exactly this hour a day like name of the names you and i work at did that view. This is deja vu news live from berlin mandatory coronavirus testing begins for travelers arriving in germany testing stations are open at arrival terminals as concerns grow that a 2nd wave of the pandemic may be hitting germany the new rules apply to anyone arriving from regions deemed high risk also coming up in beirut a big cleanup effort as the city tries to recover