Qudus Onikeku
Guest at Moviment
Dancer and choreographer Qudus Onikeku was born in Lagos (Nigeria) in 1984 and is a researcher in movement. He conducts numerous projects and collaborations around the world at the crossroads of several fields, mixing traditional dance with hip-hop or acrobatics, in addition to music, video, literature and architecture, etc.
During his early career, he joined the Heddy Maalem company in Toulouse, and was trained at the National Centre for Circus Arts in Châlons-en-Champagne. He graduated in 2009 and created his own Paris-based company, YK Projects. His creations My Exile is in My Head (2010), Still/Life (2011), Qaddish (2013), Yuropa (2018) and Spirit Child (2019) have been presented worldwide.
After a decade in France, he returned to live in Lagos in 2014, where he opened a unique cornerstone structure for Nigeria, The QDance Center; a resource, training, and talent-spotting venue. In 2017, Qudus Onikeku created the video installation Right Here, Right Now for the first Nigerian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
His latest collective work, Re:INCARNATION for the 2021 Lyon Dance Biennial, premiered at the Centre Pompidou.
Photo : © Marie Koehler
Qudus Onikeku: Out of This World
Dance Installation, performance
In this interactive performance-installation inspired by the principles of the Ifá divination system of the Yoruba culture, the public is invited to plunge into another space-time.
The installation consisting of sixteen totems defines a place to meet, listen and exchange where music, dance and the spoken word are intermingled. These totems enable us to access oral histories and sonorities in order to create an instant of collective listening at the interface of an artistic and social space.
Qudus Onikeku then takes possession of this space and dances, accompanied by four musicians, in a collaboration that confirms the idea of the urgency of the present.
Continuous installation – Friday, 9 to Sunday, 11 June 2023
Performance – Thursday, 8 to Sunday, 11 June 2023 – on reservation
Concept, directing, scenography: Qudus Onikeku
Musicians: Varna Marianne Nielsen, Olatunde Obajeun, Dinesh Pandit, Asmaa Hamzaoui
Musical creation: Charles Amblard, Fernando Velázquez, Olatunde Obajeun
Electronics: Ircam, Pierre Carré
Spatial direction: Qudus Onikeku in collaboration with Adèle Hamelin, Mathilde Coudière-Kayadjanian, Inès Forgues, Michel Abdallah, Alma Bousquet
Sculptor: Olayinka Oladosu (Osha)
Oraqu software development team: Jubril Olambiwonnu, Jamaal Fashola, Temitayo Giwa
Production: Hajarat Alli / Qdance Company. YK Projects, Paris.
Coproduction: Ircam/Les Spectacles vivants-Centre Pompidou, Biennale de la danse – Lyon
Produced and realised in the framework of the New Worlds artistic creation support programme
