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 invention is led by choreographer Richard Segal of. The dance studio is located behind a gas station in the middle of an Industrial Area the dense has known each other some of them met while the project was in the Development Stage others have danced on stage with siegel. Yes. The beginning was incredible then became an event musical out on all the n. F. C. Is this so. Their energy is contagious i think theyre amazing. The choreography is done. Redone and redone and weve done that means its a volatile art form and at times its useful. To still release some kind of Latent Energy which may still exist within the world. We have this downs thats choreographed 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 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. Jenny 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. If you subtract one from both. Sides for. Start. With one. Problem. 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. 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 process its process and its passionate and contained within it a lot of energy and putting these 2 things together of differences ballet of conservation and progression of innovation and heritage and makes a friction. That that thats not only very productive but i think its very necessary i think thats exactly what we need. Ready images of diversity images of coexistence. Images of power. Its a positive optimistic hopeful. Attitude towards 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 2012 because the institution invited siegel to conduct a Dance Workshop in lagos that was a key point in the development of his major work uni text. 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 down search for. 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 live as very exciting to watch. What began as a workshop with African Dancers of 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 can know 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 is 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 it goes. In my case i have frank who argue with frank who is a energy bomb. And i think we have a completely different bodies so my body i realize working with him that its really like i can twist in Different Directions and hes a great impact its a very strong so its that he he gets the steps in a different way and its a really interesting because i also dont speak french and he speaks well hes basically im trying to count in french for him as well trying to translate basis just to the body so we dont know we dont have a spirit its just shared chords and i think we have a directional. 0. 0000000 just in to mr its fully just tedious so when i get the slightest bit oh oh oh you do do not use. To work for it every day that gap. Ballet is not a natural thing its turning out like they have been saying all of that its not natural self it makes for saying something. Which simply just its a little different because im more at home in African Dance afro dance. 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. That. You know im watching them work right now its really interesting percent some of some of the vocabulary of you know textures is quite electric now lets hope that in classical ballet by and large you always keep your shoulders over your hips by my furtive clear and these styles of. Dancing african styles that are what the 1st thing that im that im imitating when im trying to do the stats is there is the posture of the horse and of course the seniors you bring into your shoulders in front of your pants and you bend your knees and you run you and your lecture it makes your butt cold bath 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 in. L. Switched music out see what happens after that the best thing would be if we could push it a little bit further the choreography a little bit further so itself more more secure before we swap the music out. Siegel who lives in madrid and travels to various european cities to work on a productions. He 1st learned about afro caribbean danced in the late 191000 small study in new york. He immersed 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 yes i know 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 q yes so. In the end i dont know my caribbean part just came out. 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 it was the freedom of express ourselves experimental so what do you think you know be it like bring it out to bring it all the best in the us or that could definitely one lets you do it just my piece this fall for you still miss its besides its not quite exciting so you like to come on like truly do anything with the now youre revealing 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 the into the choreography force 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. Oh. Yeah. Dancing is describing ways to begin with and then you have you know like this coming no no like we have to make it seem to our community would dance with the children we are educating them one dance a google performance show i teach judys all to this so that i think that this will come on its own. Douses thats his 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 technical change. To see a coexistence of life styles and of death styles and of cultures. That can share the stage then the flaming own hall in full from. The other 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 thanks siegel recently staged the premie i think you were called made for walking. Its an intimate chamber play and like you need text the music is based on african poly rhythms. Thank. You. Hes working with poly with this 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 like being a 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 kind of difficult so why keep it all in your head at the same time but at the same time its been my scientific experiment so break down something that actually would actually occur is like he was saying in 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 their in their in their bodies theyre describing 2 rhythms and then those 2 rhythms are combining with the other ones as well so we get even more poly 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 the african drum theory that its only fitting that we should we should experiment a bit while we have a big for the drummer divisions will be on. The just where you know theres so you can connect and i see just just the hand throws. Its a long grieved. For a token drum talks improve on. The talking drum on tells you when it wants to to move your hand. When no one sued to move your legs so we dont just dance with listening to drama its like you warning. You what i dont speak that language we need a bridge there with a guy smallish like trying to. Be a so yes tires thats really interesting listening to your own rhythm being yourself and insisting on the integrity of your or. Your way in the world at this and he took that initiative was a very interesting choice for him to tell you. What you were sealed up so thats what we did tried to remember right there right then right there without the assistance of video. Some of the tiriel and remits actually to you know to restructure it. And on top of that we layer then theres this live music. But. Today it 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 fused in my body with also the classical training because the last few days i was so feeling bad for being a big 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 rock about being yourself. And dance to your own son still reading your own rhythm. For the old box yeah of the ghost image its dont imitate him its just be yourself 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 same time and always trying to find this before measure 15 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 where youre leading before for a new in the follow up odds are that it will show you for you if you watch is really cool if you want to make music if you want to make music yeah. Just to tell you. I like the idea of to open and and like you just have to let it happen and what also at that and said that you know oh let the let. And let it affect you know. 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 crying were trying me. Were in a position to be making the world better. To repair the world. As one might say 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 translation of repairing the world. 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 happened whats wrong with having values we all have our culture belongs to. Only the people who decide to own a. Good thing. The thing. O. T. Topics. Keep learning merged reality wait a 2nd we want the whole picture our facts instead of make ideas shift deliver us. From a measure to reality to cryptocurrency to your topics for live in an ever changing Digital World lets talk digitalisation. Shift. D. W. I have a dream is. A dream that changed the world which made some sense in. A dream thats now rousing the crowds on stage crept up by the Creative Church the lutheran foundation. Martin luther king the choir music. 30 spot double. Form. And on demand. Cast language courses. Video and audio. Anytime anywhere. W. Media center. Its been 50 years since the moon landing. Was the 1st man to walk on the moon. As a small boy he dreamed of the stars. As a pilot he flew anything no matter how dangerous. Going up. As an astronaut he took part in the greatest adventure in history. A legend or simply a human being. Was real armstrong starts july 20th on t. W. This is d w news live from the pilot the around nuclear deal is on life support as iran announces it will now violated key component of the agreements a year after the u. S. Pulled out tehran will raise the rainy and richmond levels as significant marker in the deal but as mentioned keep iran from developing Nuclear Weapons leaders say they remain open to diplomacy. More perceived protests sleepers springs