The festival aims to catch those who don’t normally go to upscale Island venues
The Danse Meets Dance (DMD) Festival is an annual contemporary dance festival that originated in 2001.
It was first organised and run by the French Cultural Centre Lagos until 2004 when the centre closed. The Festival is now being handled by the French Cultural Centre Abuja, Alliance Francaise Lagos and Goethe Insitute Nigeria with technical support from Blackroots International. Additional support also comes from the French Embassy and CulturesFrance, the agency of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and Communications responsible for international cultural exchanges.
The festival aims to encourage professional dance in Nigeria and give Nigerian dancers exposure on the international scene. The festival features performances from local and foreign dance companies; and also workshops for professional and amateur dancers.
Over the years, DMD has successively served as a launch-pad onto the local and international scene for several indigenous dance companies, one of which is the popular Ijodee dance group helmed by award winning dancer, Dayo Liadi.
With the calibre of foreign and indigenous dance professionals that have featured at the festivals, it is a wonder that DMD has earned little or no public recognition so far. Its aim to encourage dance in Nigeria, however, has led to an increased awareness of contemporary dance within mostly art circles and the proliferation of dance companies in Nigeria. According to Gboyega Adetona, the creative director of the Festival, as many as 20 dance companies have risen in Lagos alone thanks to DMD.
For this year like in past years, efforts were made to get sponsorships, with little success. For a "festival", the event gets very few participants in the way of audience. The organisers are able boast of 2000 people at last year's grand performance show, which held on the last day of the festival. This year, the normally week-long event has been shortened to four days, due to this lack of corporate sponsorship and public participation.
For a country that can boast huge music and dance reality shows, mostly culled from foreign franchises, it is a wonder that an indigenously organised event such as this would have to suffer interest. In the United States, the TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance' has been hailed for encouraging dance (especially contemporary dance) culture in that country. The show has helped to bring together dance practitioners across America that help to develop workshops aimed at serving those, kids and adults, interested in the dance profession.
For a country, that loves to emulate, one would not be surprised if a production company decides to import that franchise for local consumption sometime in the future. This would be sad indeed, as there is already a foundation to build on with Dance Meets Danse, if only someone would come forward and start building.
The 10th edition of the Danse Meets Dance festival takes places this year from the 1st to 4th December 2010 at the Arts Theatre University of Lagos, Akoka; and the French School, Victoria Island. It is free for all comers.
Source:234next
It was first organised and run by the French Cultural Centre Lagos until 2004 when the centre closed. The Festival is now being handled by the French Cultural Centre Abuja, Alliance Francaise Lagos and Goethe Insitute Nigeria with technical support from Blackroots International. Additional support also comes from the French Embassy and CulturesFrance, the agency of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and Communications responsible for international cultural exchanges.
The festival aims to encourage professional dance in Nigeria and give Nigerian dancers exposure on the international scene. The festival features performances from local and foreign dance companies; and also workshops for professional and amateur dancers.
Over the years, DMD has successively served as a launch-pad onto the local and international scene for several indigenous dance companies, one of which is the popular Ijodee dance group helmed by award winning dancer, Dayo Liadi.
With the calibre of foreign and indigenous dance professionals that have featured at the festivals, it is a wonder that DMD has earned little or no public recognition so far. Its aim to encourage dance in Nigeria, however, has led to an increased awareness of contemporary dance within mostly art circles and the proliferation of dance companies in Nigeria. According to Gboyega Adetona, the creative director of the Festival, as many as 20 dance companies have risen in Lagos alone thanks to DMD.
For this year like in past years, efforts were made to get sponsorships, with little success. For a "festival", the event gets very few participants in the way of audience. The organisers are able boast of 2000 people at last year's grand performance show, which held on the last day of the festival. This year, the normally week-long event has been shortened to four days, due to this lack of corporate sponsorship and public participation.
For a country that can boast huge music and dance reality shows, mostly culled from foreign franchises, it is a wonder that an indigenously organised event such as this would have to suffer interest. In the United States, the TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance' has been hailed for encouraging dance (especially contemporary dance) culture in that country. The show has helped to bring together dance practitioners across America that help to develop workshops aimed at serving those, kids and adults, interested in the dance profession.
For a country, that loves to emulate, one would not be surprised if a production company decides to import that franchise for local consumption sometime in the future. This would be sad indeed, as there is already a foundation to build on with Dance Meets Danse, if only someone would come forward and start building.
The 10th edition of the Danse Meets Dance festival takes places this year from the 1st to 4th December 2010 at the Arts Theatre University of Lagos, Akoka; and the French School, Victoria Island. It is free for all comers.
Source:234next
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