Yk in brief...

Young kings Projects (Yk Projects) has practically been in existence since 2004, initially registered as a performing company in Nigeria, but due to the lack of appreciation of the arts and the disdain which tend to subject young artistes to a hostile environment, informed the coming together of a collaborative youth force, that operates between Nigeria and France as a not-for-profit company, it constantly re-unites new generation artists with legs in different sectors of the arts, amongst which are performing artistes, visual artistes and writers, for the execution and dissemination of artistic and socio-political projects, all with the intentions of creating an alternative landscape for the local audience to be aware of the art by projecting contemporary arts through outside performances, media and publications, thereby creating a conducive environment for their existence at home, and opening Nigeria to the realities of contemporary arts in other parts of the world.

The main Activities of the Organization includes;

• Creations and performances (Mainly Dance, New circus art and Street arts with the fusion of other media)
  
• Coverage and documentation of art related profiles, for media and archival purposes.
  
• Event Organizations (such as Ewa Bami'jo, public jams, workshops and conferences).
  

while we base our main source of income on Fund raising, Performances and income from existing projects.

Yk Projects has left her imprint in the subconscious of many across the globe, getting more involved in the contemporary dance and circus art discourse in Africa, Europe and America at large, through stage performances, street happenings, archives of dance related materials, her documentary film, articles, blogs, workshops and participation in big festivals and conferences.

• In 2004 two young artiste were in Mali to participate in a two week workshop with Kettly Noel and Augusto Cuvilas representing the organisation
• Since 2005 we organised Ewa Bami’jo locally in Lagos, which literarily translates to COME DANCE WITH ME, An event that will later become a bi-annual and international event from 2009.
• In 2006 we participated in the 8th edition of FITHEB Festival in Cotonou, was invited to be part of the 6th African and Indian ocean choreographic encounters in Paris, also performed during the 1st Africa, Caribbean and Pacific festival in Santo Domingo and participated in a two day conference on Culture Wealth and economic development MAINTENANT L’AFRIQUE! in Paris.
• In 2007 the organisation executes a research project and happenings in non-conventional spaces titled Do we need cola-cola to dance? As part of the struggles for sustainable development and inspiring young artists to dream using alternative measures and enlarging our spaces of dream. It toured round Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Cameroon.
• In 2008, Yk Projects carries on with the realisation of a documentary film (Do we need cola-cola to dance?) that follows our 2007 research project. A work-in-progress seires of Do we need cola cola to dance? Has been screened in Lagos, Kinshasa, Massachusetts and Chicago
• Presently Yk Projects has moved on with the execution of a workshop series concept titled “Collection of those things that burn in us” whose series I was carried out in Lagos. Nigeria. April 2008, series II, in Massachusetts. USA. June 2008 and Series III, in Kinshasa. DR Congo. July/August 2008.
• In 2009, Yk Projects was part of an online festival 24hours24Artist, a webcast of 24 artistes from around the globe, an initiation of Jumpstart performance co. Texas.
  

Ewa Bami'Jo THE BODY

Ewa Bami'jo (which literally translates to “Come dance with me”) is a bi-annual convention for art practitioners; scholars, students, writers and cultural operators from the African world, both on the continent and the African Diaspora. Calling on other art forms to come join forces with us, under the umbrella of Dance, with the purpose of updating our collective codes and discourse. Being part of the growing network of similar initiatives in Nigeria such as Trufesta, Dance Africana, Dance meets Danse festival, Lagos Photo Fest, Aresuva, Takes 2, Muson festival, Lagos Book Fest, Nafest, just to mention a few.

Ewa Bami'jo seeks to be a support and intellectual backing for the growing art network for Africans, rather than replicate or compete with other big events already existing on the continent.

The scenes of Ewa Bami'jo is a platform for round-table conferences, mutual exchange, film screening and performances, which lead to a documentation of the reviews of our past and structuring the present which then defines what our archives will look like in the future.

It is a time for creators and performers to question their act of creativity and their existence as performers and social players, confront and exchange views with the aim of tending towards the creation of a system that goes well with the growing local and global audience for contemporary creations.

Background EWA BAMI'JO 2009

Since 2005 Yk Projects organised Ewa Bami’jo locally in Lagos, with the aim of expanding and merging the dance frontiers with other local artistes. In 2005 and 2006, Ewa Bami'jo was organized as a one-day event that gathered artistes of different genres, such as dancers, musician, comedians, poets, journalists and actors, to come under one dance umbrella, as means of enforcing our collecting impact on the society. Ewa Bami'jo will later become a bi-annual and international event from 2009, but still dedicated to local development.

Home and Abroad.
Dance-forms other than tradition dance in contemporary Africa, are very similar to all imported or foreign activities in the society at large, reserved practically for the expatriates, it is obviously there present in the society but it has been suspending in the air, it has been surviving in a sort of extinction, never had the ability to land and be integrated in the society we operate, moreover, there is only a thin line between the artistes and the society, but paradoxically we get fame and power outside our own primary society, and all these is as a result of the standards and circumstances at which we operate our art HOME AND ABROAD.

A moment of reasoning around contemporary dance creation in the African continent...
YK Projects feels the responsibility of taking care of this major aspects where we belive we best fit in, we feel there is still a major surgery to be done to the documentation of our realities, which will aid the intellectual discourse of our past and present struggles as dance practitioners, and bring a whole new experience to the encounters of our local audience. 

Program Detailed Information.

We intend to converge numerous participants (scholars, journalists, performers, critics, cultural operators. etc.) arriving from the four corners of the globe and most especially, from every part of Nigeria into the city of Lagos, to mingle with the hundreds of existing ones in Lagos during a week, the mornings will be moments for forums, round-table conferences, each day with its own special dish on the table, which includes:

• Contemporary Dance on the African continent: An imported household branding or a local craft for export?
• Deconstructing the mask, body, image and space: Creating larger territories for dream.
• Culturing the monetized Nigerian art-face: Choreographing a “DANCE BOOM”
  

It will be opened to professionals, while priority will be given to students of art from universities all over Nigeria and then the general public.

Our anticipated moderators includes Funmi Adewole, Bisi Silva and Dominique Malaquais.

In the Afternoon, there will be screening of different dance related films, followed by discussions coupled around the propositions of the screened films, in the presence of the film makers/choreographers, amongst which are.

• (Movement (R)evolution by Joan D. Frosch) A story of an art form in four acts.
• (Do we need cola-cola to dance? by Qudus Onikeku) The younger generation wants to know.
• (Black Spring by Benoit Derveaux & Heddy Maalem) A filmed version of the controversial dance piece "Black Spring".

It will be opened to professionals while priority will be given to students of art from universities all over Nigeria and then the general public.

While the evenings will be moments of performance. Three performances each night, at The National Theatre, showcasing works of few Nigerian companies, African creators and established choreographers in the African world, some of our envisaged participants include Gongbeat productions, Crown troupe of Africa, Alajotas dance company, Ijodee dance company, Heddy Maalem dance company, Cie d'1 Autre Monde, Studios Kabako, Emil Abossolo-Mbo, Kettly Noel & Nelisiwe Xaba, and Yk projects. It will be opened to the general public, and followed by interactive section between the audience and the featured choreographers at the end of each evening.

Context and Rationale

We believe that at this present point of our encounters, after many years of pre|post colonial exchanges and several hand shakes with the world, it is high time we became focused on internal issues. More so, as we live in a world saturated with technological advancement coupled with our vast resource of indigenous professionals, we only need to appropriate all these ready made elements as our own means and apparatus, as well as using maximized effort to sculpt our art face and divert the sluggish energy into a steady and positive change reaction. 

...and for a local development. 

We aim at making conscious efforts to contribute to the creation of a conducive atmosphere, for the existence of young artists’ project 

at HOME, so as to avoid those unconscious efforts that will continue to drive us ABROAD. For this first international edition of 

Ewa Bami’jo, we are striving to create partnership with exisiting festivals happening around same period in Lagos such as Trufesta, 

Dance meets Danse festival, Lagos Photo Fest. And create more ralationships with local institutions, both public and private such as, 

The National Theater, CORA, the French Cultural Center, Terra Kulture, Center for contemporary arts etc. In the midst of all these 

careful local network building we also seek to create a condusive atmostphere and befitting relationship with cooperate organisations.

For the 2009 edition of Ewa bami'jo, we are in the process of discussing with major international funding bodies such as Prince Claus Fund, Doen Foundation and  CULTURESFRANCE, we are also in discusion with local funding partners amongst which are the National Theatre of Nigeria who offered the use of the Theatre for the three day festival and Nigezie which has signified great interest as a leading media partner, studio 868 proposing a venue for the Artistes Gala. The process of partnership and sponsorship is still on.

Objectives

To create a medium for the local media, audience and investors to be sensitized to the realities and existence of contemporary dance in the African world.   

To create a window at which the world look into Nigeria and Nigerian artistes as well as audience get in contact with the world.

To de-individualize and re-unites the front role players in the socio-cultural development project of the African world, thereby creating a dance umbrella where it becomes possible to collectively ponder over similar issues facing the different genre of arts in different forms.

To be a platform where we can constantly update and document the intellectual discourse of our past and present struggles as dance practitioners, so as to avoid the same excuse of oral tradition when there will be a need for a concrete justification of the happenings of our epoch.

Valorization Measures

Just like most of our projects, we believe an audio-visual material is the best means of preserving our activities, the documentary film that will be produced out of Ewa Bami'jo is aimed to combine entertainment with database and socio-political proposals, primarily committed to the local audience through national television and other available media such as the web.

Yk projects has laid a series of project to be a follow up to Ewa bami jo. The dance industry in Nigeria is still in its primitive stage with quite a lot of untapped initiations, we tend to make a functional use of our differences, diversity and complexity through the implementation of 3D.
3D is a project plan that seeks to multiply and displace practitioners by looking outside-in and going from big-to-small, having a “Local Dance BOOM” in mind, through diverse combination and intra-exchange on a national level, that bonds a chain of network units within each states first before opening up to blocs in the regions, with the aim of “De-individualizing” the isolated operators that is rather being squashed by the massive weight of their one man shows, which must however be backed by other possible measures of “De-centralizing” our activities away from a single administrative centre to other locations, on a movable architectural structure that can easily be devolve to other regions, and “De-concentrating” the attention of other secondary operators from the main regions that harbours the central players.

More so, bringing individual forces to form an alliance of cultural operators, whereby they come together with a collaborative force, which does not exclude students, journalists, critics, scholars and professionals all around Nigeria, and by so doing, we are in the process of creating other doors at which we can disseminate our energy, by constantly giving helping hands to smaller operators in other states to develop a sustainable dance market, and unconsciously, there will be a massive network that the nation can benefit from

The 2009 edition of the Ewa Bami'jo then becomes a perfect platform where we bring few targeted alliance into a bond, while the initiation of a similar project like “Do we need cola-cola to dance?” for a national tour becomes a weapon for us to drill further into the nation, to scavenge for possible encounters with our supposed groupies, thereby the second edition of Ewa Bami'jo becomes the beginning of a concrete alliance that will only get to increase with time and as the word continues to go around.

Benefits of putting 3D into consideration includes possible mobility and artistic initiations among different region. since there are no concrete publication or agencies that provides us with such information of how many professionals, organisations and exhibition venues exist in the country, such initiation then unconsciously develops an accurate statistic and census of the industry, which then become a guide for easy access of the various regions for national and trans-national exchange.

Who'S WHO.

• Trustees;

Onikeku Qudus (Artistic Director) is a graduate of The National Higher School of Circus arts. France, as a Dancer and Acrobat, with a French government scholarship, his Yoruba tradition plays a peculiar role in his art, during his days of formation at the Gongbeat arts. Lagos, he was also an artiste-in-residence with the Lagos states council of arts and culture in 2001. For more than a decade Qudus has been present in the choreographic scene of Lagos, he is part of the new generation creators springing up from Africa. Known in Europe, in the USA and the Caribbean for his solo pieces, writings and research projects. He toured Nigeria, Madagascar, Croatia, Germany, and the Great Britain with Alajotas dance company (Ibadan) between 2001 and 2003 with the creation ONIDUNDUN and ILE. re-creation of a duo piece titled AGA OBA with Awoulathe Alougbin (Benin) for a tour in Belgium in 2004, participation in the works of Heddy Maalem (France) particularly in Black Spring and The rite of spring that toured extensively in Africa, Europe and the United States of America between 2004 and 2008. 

His first attempt in Choreography was with "Lost face" that toured Nigeria, Benin republic, France and Dominican republic between 2004 and 2006. "Lost face" was part of a DVD collection filmed by Donald Amadji and Pascal Agnangnan for ORTB and Gilles-Ivan Frankignoul for SOPAT. He equally Participated in a video-dance project "Roforofo fight" produced by Grègoire du Pontavice, a fusion between his dance and the music of Fela Kuti, entered for a Fela-Competition where it was awarded the first price. Qudus also directed and produced a documentary film titled "do we need cola cola to dance" following an African tour of a public space experimental project. this project gained recognition from the French government, where it was named the Laureate of the Envie d'agir program, Defi jeune 2007, and in the Youth in Action initiative program in 2008, powered by the European commission. This project was equally awarded a grant by the Prince claus funds in Netherlands. This film has been screened in Lagos, Massachusetts, kinshasa, and Chicago. Qudus has been a laureate of several awards since 2000, where the most recent being the Dancer of the Year for the just concluded FUTURE AWARDS 2009. 

Stephanie Esparza (Projects Manager) had her Masters Degree in Cultural Management and Communication, from the University of Sciences Po Paris, and a degree in Political Sciences and Latin American Studies. She has organised many cultural and social projects in different countries, participated in the organisation of the Second ‘Livres d’Afrique” Literature Salon (UNESCO, Paris); the “Attitude” International Dance Competition in Mexico, different Arts Exhibitions in Brazil and France. She was recently the Director of Corporate Affairs and Partnerships of “Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre” in Maputo.

Hajarat Alli (Communications) is a final year student of the University of Lagos. Nigeria studying French language, she worked as a marketer for Renaissance Networks, a broadcasting company and also co-managed and taught at L'Atelier, an art center for children in Lagos. She did a course in theatre administration and administration of the Performing Arts in 2007 and 2008 at the National Center for Circus Arts in France. Hajarat has been an active member of Yk Projects and administratively involved in all past projects of the organization.

Matthew Ogunnola (Media Affairs) is a renowned radio and tv personality in Lagos, he studied mass communication at the Ogun state polytechnic, after his ordinary national diploma (OND) program he proceded to work for various tv and radio stations both state and private owned. He was the director of photography for the Yk Project's most recent project, “do we need cola cola to dance” and he presently heads the production unit for Nigezee, a music and lifestyle station that show on cable and terrestial stations.

Ohimai G Amaize (Public Relations) is a budding media cum brand strategist who expresses passionate belief in the use of the media as a tool for social reconstruction. He has articulated this at various local, national and international fora through published articles. Ohimai has received several awards in recognition of his dynamic efforts. He has handled the Popular Culture Programme of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and actively contributed to the development of crime prevention strategies at the new Strategy and Re-orientation Unit (SARU) of the Commission.

Eseohe Arhebamen (North American Co-ordinator) is a poet, dancer/choreographer, visual artist, musician and performance artist. Born in Nigeria, raised in Detroit and currently residing in New York, Eseohe’s artworks reflect a diversity of cultures and the semiotic interrelations of media. Eseohe’s study of poetry, African Theater and Butoh have led to movement works in which she "becomes language". Eseohe has won several awards for her artworks including an Inside-Out Literary Arts residency funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Eseohe Arhebamen graduated from the University of Michigan in Creative Writing and Literature and studied Studio Art at Hunter College, New York. She has performed or shown work internationally, collaborated with numerous artists and taught Writing and Visual Arts for the past 8 years in lower-income communities. Eseohe was also recently Business Manager of the National Black Programming Consortium.

• Moderators;
  

  Dominque Malaquais

                         Cultural Historian

  Funmi Adewole

                          Dance Researcher

  Bisi Silva

                                        Art Critic

• Referees;

     Dr Ahmed Yerima (Nigeria)

                               Director General

                  National Theatre. Lagos

             Peter  Badejo OBE (UK)

                               Artistic Director

                                       Badejo Arts

          Sophie Renaud  (France)

                                             Director

Exchange and artistic cooperation

                       CULTURESFRANCE