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 it's very different because with richard it's classical contemporary afro japanese march choreography. it's japan. europe africa 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 weston 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 dances know each other some of the 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 an exhibit musical out on all the n.f.c. if they felt. their energy is contagious i think they're amazing. limitless. choreography is

done and redone and redone and we've done it redone it's a volatile art form and at times it's useful. just to release some kind of latent energy which may still exist within the world. we have this dance that's choreographed we can teach parts of we can modify parts of that but it shouldn't it's not just in one direction that's what i'm what i'm 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 i'm a sweaty mess and that's. exactly. what we came for we have. a situation where we care and hybridize or as long as we're open as long as we learn from one another as long as we are. ready to to translate and

really see the other. jammy 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 they're because they're passionate about dancing in general and about dancing together in this group specifically. and the ideas that are motivating. saeco challenges the traditions and rules of classical ballet especially in his work you need text. if you subtract one number that she's. trying for

a moment. of truth. for our own from. 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 that's the world that we live in today very very much so and it's messy and it's complex and

its boundaries are not clear and it's it's still forming it's it's process it's process and it's passionate and contained within it a lot of energy and putting these 2 things together of different ballet of conservation and progression of innovation and heritage. and makes a friction. that that's that's not only very productive but i think it's very necessary i think that's exactly what we need. images of diversity images of coexist. images of power. it's a positive optimistic hopeful. attitude toward our future. of our art form of our society. that doesn't also discount

perhaps the obligation for us as artists to also express friction uncomfortable moment that we're passing through as a society in our steps toward a more perfect future. in 22 of the institution fronted sequel 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 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 in the ballet and what gives it that certain line that's very exciting to watch. what began as a workshop with african downstairs which i was making the movement and they were translating my vocabulary then underwent another translation process and ultimately became the ballet unit text.

the public you know the performance and so did the dancers but richard siegel

choreography is a process so he's revising mccain's 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 we'll have we'll have you know 2 people doing doing the same thing but then i think we're going to start to make little modifications to it as as a as it goes. in my case i have for. and i have to argue with frank who is a energy bomb. and i think we have a completely different bodies of 7 body realize working with him that it's really a rag lichens waste in different directions and he's

a great impact it's very strong so it's that he keep getting the steps in a different way sometimes and it's a really interesting because i also don't speak french and when he speaks he's basically i'm trying to count in french for him as well trying to translate basis just for the body so we don't know if we all have a possibility to share it or it's all that big we have a direction. that. is. chosen to mr x. for me to studios so when i was in the flat it was hard to do good to others to. have to work for it every day that i get. laid it's not natural like it's turning out like they did saying all of that it's not natural south it makes for saying. that

simply just it's a little different because i'm more at home in african dance afro dance. 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 it's very different with richard it's classical contemporary afro japanese march choreography it's japan. europe. africa a mixture. it. you know i'm watching them work right now it's really interesting for some some of some of the vocabulary of you know textures is fight electric now let's call 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 i put on the imitating what i'm 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 kitsune you bend your knees and you can you and your lecturer measure but both bags there's a lot of movement potential. this . list 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 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.

siegel lives in madrid and travels to various european cities to work on a productions. defenseless and about afro caribbean danced in the late 1900 small study in new york. the amassed himself in a seething stance called shot and quickly realized the benefits that the diversity could bring to contemporary dance society had changed so fundamentally since establishment of classical ballet as it is still practiced in many places segal felt compelled to reflect this in his condo graffiti.

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 live 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 cue so. in the end i don't like caribbean part just came out. of. the.

current graffiti that reflects today's multinational and multicultural societies that sequels trademark here in lagos it's easy to see how the contributions of dances from diverse ethnic backgrounds can enhance a performance it doesn't matter when the dancers were born they find a common language of artistic creation the blues food boundaries. the job he was the freedom of this presidential experimental so what do you think it will be like to bring it all to bring it all the best in those. who got to win that he won lets you do. this my piece this mouthpiece will make you i think michael and i so you like to come on like 3 you do anything you want to but now you're regain 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. and turn him into the choreography course we're starting here because it gives us a good. scaffolding on which to hang the other or other rather graphic but i'm sure that's the way that it's go. dancing is just given away as has been the way things are now like this coming no no like we have to make it seem so our community would like to chill then we have a good sunday morning dance to go for my show i teach kiddies all today but i think that this will come on it's also dances dances that's life. that's just everything . that.

lagos is often disparaged as a sprawling dystopian cauldron of a city but it has a rich cultural same with concerts and open air performances like this one honoring the life and work of afrobeat pioneer then you can change. the seed of coexistence of life styles and death styles and of cultures. back and share the stage when the. only point of call from. ballet of difference does give expression to that form for for that diversity 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 co-exist. siegel recently staged the premie at the new one a cool. made for walking. it's an intimate chamber play and like unique takes to music is based on african poly rhythms. he's working with polly with this which means that there's multiple resumes happening in the body at the same time and yet it's been a challenge i think for all of us to go through that such

a war. just because when you think of life being a musical the answer and this are very use of this sort of way rounded out a count or 34 to 4 or something that's very kind of measurable and these are all over the place and like a 5 and a 7 and 8 and 3. i have to kind of difficult so i keep it all in your head at the same time but at the same time it's 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 yeah exactly in each of the in the in their bodies they're 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 is based on the rhythm. specifically african drum theory that it's only fitting that we should we should experiment a bit while we have a big room full of drummers who do things for fun yeah we just play the latest so can i can i see just just the hand phrase yeah yeah. yeah. yes it's a language. in the language it's only about. the talkin drum talks improve on. the talking drum on tells you when it wants you to move your hand when no one suits or move your legs so we don't just dance with listening to the drama it's like you warning. you what i don't speak that language we need a bridge there with a guy

a smallish like trying to tell people to be yourself. types that's really interesting listening to your own rhythm being yourself and insisting on the integrity of your. your way and in the world that he took that initiative was a very interesting choice for him to. do not only. is it worth a few years so that's what we did we tried to remember right there 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 lives music.

today it became more incorporated in the body of the things we learned in the last 2 days yet 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 wasn't really judging it. the drumming was for made for walking was about. being yourself about being yourself. and danced your own down still rooted in your own rhythm box. of the ghost image it's don't imitate him it's just be yourself although you hold a reaction which is interesting because in the piece actually it's

a lot about following but it's also a lot about leading up to saving time and always trying to find this if will measure between living 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 where you are leading before for a new in the follow up odds of that pivotal study for you if you watch this really if you want to make music if you want to make music yeah. to say. i like the idea of open and and let me just have let it happen and what all saw and they hadn't 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 we're trying. we're trying. we're in a position to be. the world better. to repair the world. as one might say it is our obligation. the idea of repairing the world as it is it's 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 as the is the is the hebrew translation of the 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 it's

a grand notion but. you know what's happened what's wrong with having values we all have the power culture belongs to only the people who decide to own it.

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come on the streets of nairobi. how has code in 1000 transformed the city's might. help as it also says it's men and women who rely on the estimates of the lengths to fend for their families but i want to find out. the 77 percent of. the 60 minutes to. the time and place captured in pictures. images of goes on. to studios are kind of documents lives in bygone eras. and leads to those living today. they are guarding gaza's past

in a box. a legacy in black and white. collective memories. starts on his 14th on d. w. . move. to unicorns really exist we send your remarks reports of like a coup got to germany's unicon capital to find out more on that a little bit later. but 1st a warm welcome to another edition of your own max here's what else we've got coming up for you today.