Ballet in Nigeria and Funding for Dance

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As many subscribers know I blog about dance.   Two of the topics that I have discussed in my blog are the growing interest in ballet in Sub-Saharan Africa and the need for a third stream of funding for dance from advertising, merchandizing and sponsorship to supplement revenues from ticket sales and government funding..   

On the first topic readers will be interested in two articles by Lindsay Alissa King that appeared recently in the online newsletter Ballet Rising:

• "Imagining the Future of Ballet from Nigeria" ; and
• "Ballet in Nigeria"

I have also blogged about classical ballet classes in Kenya and I was pleased to see that the RAD featured one of those classes on World Ballet Day.

In respect of a third stream of funding for dance from advertising, merchandizing  and sponsorship the Intellectual Property Lawyers Association of Nigeria is holding a webinar on the Business of Dance with a panel of speakers from dance and the law at 13:00 today and  I am one of the speakers,.   f anyone wants to attend the webinar, the meeting IP is 883 6067 4030 and the pass code is "Dance".    
 

 

[Terpsichore]

I am very pleased to have taken part in this event.   

Speaker after speaker stressed the importance of dance in Nigeria.   I met some very impressive dance artists including Jemima Angulu who is a choreographer, teacher and performer.   She runs a very successful studio in Abuja.   Their main interest is in traditional dance and contemporary dance but ballet is becoming increasingly popular  Subscribers may  remember the video of Anthony Madu Mmesoma which went viral.

I told them the story of Michaela DePrince, how she found a picture of a dancer in the street outside her orphanage, her meteoric progress through the Dutch National Ballet and what a gracious, personable young woman she is everyday life.  I recommended "Hope in a Ballet Shoe",

In many ways the Nigerian's have a lot to teach us.   They are quite used to the concept of the third stream of revenue or rather the second as state funding is very limited. They use technology to keep dance alive perhaps even more than we do.

I would love to do a similar seminar in this country.