A mixture of. Place. Lagos nigeria population more than 20000000 a small group of dances 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 adventure is led by choreographer richard segal. Plays. The dance studio is not a case of behind a gas station in the middle of an Industrial Area the dances know each other some of them met while the project was in the Development Stage others have danced on stage with siegel feel. He is. The beginning was incredible when he came i mean did it music loud or else the n f 3 it was so. Their energy is contagious i think theyre amazing. Choreography is done. And done and we done it its a volatile art form and at times its useful. To see release some kind of Latent Energy which may still exist within the world. We have this down so thats choreograph we can teach 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. Thats exactly. What we came for we have. A situation where are 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 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. If you prefer one number shes. Trying for an album type. Of. Problem from. The 2 terms ballet on one hand and difference on the other. Appeared to be oppositional they appeared 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 process and its 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 meigs of friction. That thats thats not only very productive but i think its very necessary i think thats exactly what we need. Ready images of diversity images of coexisting. Images of power. Its a positive optimistic hopeful. Attitude toward our future. Of our art form of our 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 Good Institution invited siegel to conduct a Dance Workshop in lagos that was a 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 in the ballet and what gives it that certain i thats 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 underwent another translation process and ultimately became the ballet unit text. The public loved the performance and so did the dancers but Richard Siegel choreography is a process so hes revising the piece 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 well end up doing as well have well have you know 2 people doing doing the same thing but then i think were going to start to make little modifications to it as as a as a ghost. In my case i have. Frank who argue with frank who is a energy bomb. And i think we have good completely different bodies so my body and i realize working with him that its really a drag i can squish in Different Directions and hes breaking a locked its very strong so its that he keeps the steps in a different way sometimes and its 3 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 honestly know how to spin it into to share chords so i think we have a direction. That. Is. Chosen to mr x. For me to studios so when i sing in the flat it oh. Oh you do do other things i. Have to work for it every day that. Ballet is not natural like it and its turning out like they did saying all of that its not natural self it makes for saying. That she simply just its a little different because im more at home in African Dance afro dance. In the course 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 of minos. You know im watching them work right now its really interesting for such some of some of the vocabulary of you know textures is quite electric now lets go back and fast the valley by and large you always keep your shoulders over your hips fighting right furtively here. 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 for starters and of course as soon as you bring your or their shoulders in front of your soon to bend your knees and you can you and your lecture measure but those bags theres a lot of movement potential. This. Is 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 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 itself more and more secure before we swap the music out. Siegel who lives in madrid and travels to various european cities to work on your productions. He 1st learned about afro caribbean danced in the late 1900 small study new york. He amongst himself in the citys dance culture and quickly realized the benefits that the diversity could bring to contemporary Dance Society has changed so fundamentally since the establishment of classical ballet as it is still practiced in many places segal felt compelled to reflect this in his 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 on the 2nd time i lost because it comes completely halfway through because we have certain accents also in the electronic the the yeah yeah i take as a cue so. In the end i dont know my caribbean part just came up. Curry up refuse it reflects todays multinational and multicultural societies that siegels trademark here in like us 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 the press of still experimental so what i think you know like bring it all to bring it all the best in those codelco gospel when no one lets you with. Its that though this might be this mafias you know message its very effective not going to be silent so youre like oh come on like 3 do anything with the now youre brigade this into your feast thank you so much. Thank you but i do expect that you know that today in the coming days more and more to let their vocabulary. And chair and she got into the choreography course were starting here because it gives us a good. Scaffolding on which to hang the other our other other dancing but im sure thats the way that its going. To. Dance in the streets paving the way has been always a major you know just let me know you know like we have to make it seem to our community would then have to change that we are educating them on dance to go from a show i teach students all to this so that i think that this will come on its also dances dances dances like the good dancers everything. Lagos is often disparaged as a sprawling dystopian cauldron of a city but it has a rich cultural same with concerts an opening at performances like this one honoring the life and work of afrobeat piney and then you can change. The seat a coexistence of life styles that styles and of cultures. Back and share the stage when the. Only woman to come from. Ballet of difference. Does give expression to the form for. Diversity openness of. Spirit. Curiosity about the other or everything or you know frankly with without discriminating without making a hierarchy that these things can coexist. Siegel recently strange the premier of the new one called made for walking. Its an intimate chamber of play and like you need takes to music is by some african poly rhythms. Hes working with polly with a miss which means that theres multiple resumes happening in the body at the same time and yet 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 34 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. Its in time its difficult so i keep it all in your head at the same time but at the same time its one of my scientific experiments a breakdown of something that actually naturally occurs. Like he was saying in African Songs and dances and like natural red then thats a sort of break it down talents and so that we can visually kind of play with that you know exactly in each of their 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 paul the 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 then its only fitting that we should we should experiment a bit while we have a big room full of drummers editions full on. Just for the letters so you can connect and i see just just the hand phrase. There that. Yes its a language. The language its all about. The talking drum talks improve on. The talking german tells you when it wants you to move your hand when you once knew to move your legs so we dont just dance with listening to drama its like you wanted. To well i dont speak that language we needed a bridge there with a guy small its like trying to. Be yourself. Tires thats really interesting listening to your own rhythm be yourself and insisting on the integrity of your. Your way in and in the world that he took that initiative was a very interesting tricks for him to tell you. 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. And on top of that we later than this this my music to the. Today it became more incorporated in the body of the things we learned the last 2 days and all this all these speedsters just kind of fused in my body with all sort of the classical training because the last few days i was her feeling bad for being a big classico and then today it just all came together and i wasnt really judging it. In that. The drumming was for made for walking was about. Being yourself about being yourself. And dance to your own son still rooted in your own rhythm box yeah all of the guns in the seats 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 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 you where you lead it before if were going to be in fallujah odds are it is going to show you for you if your boss is really cool if you want to make music if you want to make music yeah then go. To any community. And lag the idea of open and and let me just have had let that happen and what also all of that and said that you know. Let the let. And i cant have and let it affect you. What can i do i can bring together a group of of people of artists who share the attitude or at least we are cultivating the attitude were trying were 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 the is the hebrew translation of the of repairing the world. And i look at it and i want to own that i can decide what values i want to own that 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. Safely. My abusers the priests. My ts cops and used as a child by priests at a Catholic School in berlin decades later he finally speaks out. Many other victims also step forward and yet his abusers havent been punished to this day now my ts catch is tracking them down in chile in 15 minutes w. Climate change. The state of belief. Environmental factors. Of globalization affect biodiversity species on sufficient exploitation equality. Human rights displacement was killed the global and current of local action was. Global 3000 and. 66 planet earth live the global tourist guide fund germanys booming capital i love berlin the scope of the multicultural metropolis in our euro back series simpler to the listener like charleston. I love you even was sure it was a switzerland looks like swiss like me despite the 15 nations 50 story. And its a very personal tips on berlins very best interests. Book now. Clearly called t w. K. U r a you know this 05 minutes 4 minutes. Past the hour in a beauty. Pageant all. The feats in the pantheon of the great tenors certainly hes one for the ages of. The. Skull but a tenor for the ages starts july 10th on g. W. Players. Such. Claims. California. Shaken. Up. In a huge. Opposition