The Department of Theatre and Dance is proud to announce Qudus Onikeku, one of the preeminent Nigerian choreographers working today, as Winter 2013 Granada Artist-in-Residence.

Born in Lagos, Onikeku graduated from the National Higher School of Circus Arts in Chalons-en-Champagne, France. Often inspired by his Yoruban culture, Onikeku conducts artistic research in Africa and has toured the United States, the Caribbean and Europe with artists including Heddy Maalem, Christophe Abdul Onibasa, George Lavaudent, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jean Claude Galotta. 

In 2007 he directed “Do We Need Coca-Cola to Dance?”, an urban dance project in various African cities which gave rise to a documentary film. Other works include “I Must Set Forth,” (2009) at the Bates Dance Festival, and “My Exile is in my Head,” (2010) at Centquatre in Paris and “STILL/Life” (2011) at the Festival d’Avignon. Onikeku’s work is influenced by Nigerian dance, hip hop, acrobatics, and more, and tends to explore themes of identity and exile.

Onikeku says, “I create a movement identity that fuses dance and acrobatics, while I make my Yoruba culture my basis, and combining it with several other influences such as hip hop, capoeira, and contemporary dance vocabularies, to weave a certain understanding of the human nature and condition.”