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 western and african influences. This creation of 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 them met while the project was in the Development Stage others have danced on stage with siegel for years. The beginning was incredible when it became i mean did it music loud or else the n f 3 is the full. Their energy is contagious i think theyre amazing. Choreography is done. And done and weve done it means 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 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 of 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. 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 with 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. The. Number of times shes. Trying for an album. But i. Came up with one. 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 of heritage in coded in in an infile it art form something that really that really has contra. And on the other hand we have this idea of difference 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 contains within it a lot of energy and putting these 2 things together of different ballet of conservation progression of innovation and heritage and makes a friction. That 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 hossa too optimistic hopeful. Attitude towards our future. Of our art form or 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 20 to one of the Good Institutes 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 downstairs. All over and we were working in a 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 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. Underwent a nother translation process and ultimately became the ballet you know text. The public 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. Thanks 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 will 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 it as it goes. In my case i have frank to argue with frank who is a energy bomb. And i think we have a completely different bodies survive body i realize working with him that its really like i can twist in Different Directions and hes a great impact its very strong so its he he gets the steps in a different way 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 all we all have our spirit it just shared chords and i think we have a directional. 0000000 just with the mr x 4 we just tedious so when i see the flash of it oh oh oh do do not do this. To work for it every day that gap. Ballet is not natural like its turning out like they have been saying all of that its not. The south it is makes or saying so. Theres simply just its a little different because im more at home in African Dance afro dance. So 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. 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 hope that in classical ballet by and large you always keep your shoulders over your hips fight like vertically and these styles of. Dancing african style is a bit of what the 1st thing that im and im imitating when im trying to do the stats is there is the posture of the horse shows and of course as soon as you bring your you or your shoulders in front of your fits and you bend your knees and you and your lecture make 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 with it would be to actually change the music in. Ill 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 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 dance in the late 1918 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 had changed so fundamentally since you stopped listening to classical ballet as it is still practiced in many places segal felt compelled to reflect this in this comic 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 it builds up in the council and the 2nd time i lost it becomes completely halfway through because we have certain accents also in the electronic the that yeah yeah i take as a q yeah so. In the end i dont know my caribbean part just came out. Hurry up repeat it reflects todays multinational and multicultural societies that siegels trademark here in one cause its easy to see how the contributions of dances 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 pull down trees. The job he was the freedom of his presence they all experimental say what they think you know be it like bring it out to bring out the best in us or that could definitely one lets you do its just my piece this mouthpiece you dont mess with it speak the truth my point was so you like to come on like truly doing a thing on the now youre revealing this into your piece thank you so much. Thank you but i do expect you know it today in the coming days more and more to let their vocabulary. Enter and survive into the choreography of 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 because it was in danger now but its coming no no like we have to make it seem so our community would then have to chill down we are educating them one dance a good performance show i teach kids all today so that i think that this will come on its own. Douses thats his thats his life. Thats his 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 piny a senate committee. To see a coexistence of lifestyles and styles and of culture. That can share the stage then the. Only one calling the 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 thanks siegel recently staged the premiere at the new work called made for walking. Its an intimate chamber play and like unique takes the music is based on african poly rhythms. Thanks. Thank you 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 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 its been kind of difficult so why keep it all in your head at the same time but at the same time its a nice 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 and counts and so that we can visually kind of play with it you know exactly in each of the 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 poly rhythm i just figured ok as long as we have 3 out of 4 of the dancers here as long as is 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 driver the days of school on which we just use so you can connect and i see just just the hand throws. Its a language. The language for over a token drum talks and prove all of. The talk and drama tells one to one suit to move your hand. When no one suits a move your legs so we dont just dance with listening to the drama its like a warning little boy see what i dont speak that language we need a bridge there with a guy small is like trying to tell people to be yourself yeah. Thats really interesting listening to your own rhythm being yourself and insisting on the integrity of your or. Your way. In the world with us and he took that initiative was a very interesting choice for him to. Do not. Want it was sealed up so thats 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 to you know to restructure it. And on top of that we layered in as this lives music to. Try. To they 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 fused 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 dance to your own dont feel really in your own rhythm. Box. 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 up to saving time and always trying to find the 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 you alluded to before if were going to do that 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 out of them. To examine you. And i like the idea of open and and let me just have a good head and what also they havent said that you know oh let me let. Let it happen 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 is our obligation. The idea of repairing the world is its not mine and 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 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 power culture belongs to only the people who decide to own it. They created a small story to the 79. 00. Percent trying to imagine politics business the mob wired crisis and. The story is an era that defines a march today. 1979 economy that created todays morning. 15 minutes. Every 2 seconds the person is forced to flee their home. The consequence. Has been to say stressful hour documentary series displaced depicts dramatic humanitarian crises from around the world and. 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Point 0. 0 can see it because as if to say i said. The book. This is d w news life a from the fury an outrage shamed out america echo across baghdad a day off to us as a strike that killed irans top agenda tens of thousands joined a funeral procession in iraq a capital cost tensions in a region iran has vowed revenge for the death of general cassim son in law also coming up a straight he calls out 3000. 00 reservists to help deal with the devastating wildfires forecasters are winning of more high winds and stuff