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| Qudus |
He’s
one of the most celebrated modern international dancer, curator, writer and
dance instructor of our time.
The artistic director of Q Dance Centre, Qudus
Onikeku, is poised to make a difference in dance theatre. He studied and worked
in France for more than a decade and is now set to transform the dance arts
industry. In their recent outing at the Lagos international Trade Fair/Lagos
Art and Book festival 2015 at Freedom Park, Lagos, his dance group called Q
Dance Centre, was the cynosure of all eyes as a medley of poetry, classical
music, bluefunk and dance was showcased seamlessly as part of the creative
session.
‘Iwalewa’ was the theme of the performance and it resonates with the challenges of humanity as ‘Beauty in imperfection’. Guests were held spellbound as the dancers entertained them with choreography, sign language, hip hop dance in the all-in-one performance. After their performance, some guests did not believe that most of the performers were speech impaired or handicapped in any form.
Before they mounted the podium, Tunde Jegede
entertained the hundreds of guests present at the gathering as he led the MUSON
Classical Ensemble with great tunes. The performance that night emphasised the
power of unity as celebrated musician and master guitarist, Keziah Jones, with
his band helped to make the medley a rare performance.
According to
Qudus two deaf dancers, dumb, lame dancer and one plagued with Sclerosis
showcased ‘Iwalewa’. He revealed that Q Dance Centre's philosophy is: “dance
is a weapon just like Fela Kuti used music as a weapon. Our centre
normally, is a mad house consisting of a great number of youths who want to
learn the arts. Some of our engagement with the community had 25 people who
went to Yaba, Obalende and Freedom Park. We want to do purely artistic work and
engage the community. Since I started Q Dance Centre two years ago, it has
been challenging and rewarding.”He said he was inspired to learn the arts in France and then came to implement it, hence, the forming of Q Dance Centre. "I believe the arts industry here so I came back because I believe we are the ones that will effect change. You can equally be in France and tour the whole cities in France for years because there are theatres everywhere. We have about 100 theatres scattered around the country but here we don’t have that system. With an enabling environment created by the government, the industry will be better for it."
A peep into his growing up days showed that dancing
is a childhood thing for Qudus. “I started at a young age. I started doing
acrobatic at five and that was what led me to dance, but I started dancing
fully when I was 13 years of age. I went to Ijeshatedo Boys Secondary School in
Surulere, Lagos and left high school in Lagos at 16. Since then, I have not
done anything with my life except dancing. I am a graduate of the National
Higher School of Circus Arts in France.”
Qudus also uses his craft to promote Yoruba culture.
“I realized that in the Yoruba tradition, two things fix the eyes. One is ‘ewa’
(beauty) and the other one is ‘eran’ (spectacle) which comes from the root
‘eran ti’ which means ‘remember’. The moment I realize that, I also realized
that whether you are from Brazil, China or Lagos, these two things fix your
eyes, so I play with them like men’s spectacle which people admire because it
attracts their eyes.
“I also play along with beauty in the text and also
the way I manage strength and fluidity in music. I am trying to bring into what
it will look like in form of dance and what it will look like if I have been
able to go round with all my experiences of dance and train my muscles. I go
from something very strong to something very fragile. So the moment you play
with those extremities, it touches people because we all connect with that.
They all know fragility and strength, so for me, this is what I have been able
to use for this piece. We performed it
in Brazil, Japan and South Africa. It has always been the same because we didn’t
put the message on a code.”
He twists and turns his body during performance;
does it affect his health? He was asked:
“It actually helps my health. If I was not doing all those things, I would
have not been as fit as I am. There are a lot of things we don’t talk about in
Nigeria. We still have some other ways of expressing it without even talking
about it. So for me, it is healing. The real purpose of art is to heal, to
share a moment together with people, to look for cohesion, values and memory.
That is how we can feel things because you don’t have to wait for it to happen
to you before you feel it. Empathy is something that we always work with a lot.
By doing something very energetic, audience is also doing it with us because
they also hold their breath. Eventually, you feel as if you have done something
exactly what I have done.”
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