WHOWE ARE
We are a passionate team committed to empowering our underprivileged youth to cocreate a better tomorrow
TEAM MEMBERS.
The core team is below. However instructors and facilitators are hired from the community where the workshop takes place and therefore the team varies for each production.
Ade Bantu
Creative Director / Music / Co-Founder
Ade Bantu is a Nigerian-German musician, producer, music consultant and social activist. He is best known as the front man of the 13-piece award winning band BANTU (Brotherhood Alliance Navigating Towards Unity). Ade Bantu is the creator of Afropolitan Vibes a quarterly concert series & annual music festival which has been running for 9 years in Lagos. He is the founder of the chart-topping Afro-German music and anti-racism collective Brothers Keepers. Ade Bantu’s 30 year recording career has seen him work with various international acts and record labels this has helped him build an extensive network that spans several continents. He has recorded with musical acts such as UB40, Nneka, Tony Allen, Fatai Rolling Dollar and Seun Kuti. He has also collaborated with the likes of Burna Boy, Yemi Alade, Harry Belafonte and many more. Asides from music, Ade Bantu co-produced “Elders Corner” a documentary film that chronicles the history of Nigeria through the lives and works of its music icons. Ade Bantu has developed and executed numerous performing arts, cross-cultural and community arts projects across Europe and Africa. He is the co-founder of BornTroWay & a board member of Planet Heart Foundation.
Ilaria Chessa
Producer / Co-Founder
Ilaria is an economist with a passion for arts and Africa. She worked as development specialist in several African countries in non profit, bilateral and multilateral organisations. In parallel to her economic work in areas of economic and social reforms, she co-produced two international film festivals, the ION International Film Festival (2009) and the maiden edition of AfricaInternational / AFRIFF Film Festival (in2010) both in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta. She is co-founder of the BornTroWay Project.
Segun Adefila
Dance
Segun Adefila is a dance and performance artist based in Bariga, Lagos.
He runs a youth dance theatre group, Crown Troupe of Africa.
The theatre company is made up of artists whose forte is the creation of new and socially relevant works.
The award-winning troupe is famous for their ground breaking, unique and innovative rendition of works, which are flexible enough to be performed in conventional and unconventional performance spaces.
Joy Princess Akrah
Facilitator theatre arts
Joy is a performance artiste and graduate of Creative Arts from the University of Lagos. She has been part of several theatre productions such as Death and The Kings Horseman, Moremi Ajaasoro, The Lion and The Jewel, Castles in the Air and several social political skits such as Otiya, Exodus, Fellow Countrymen. As a great lover of arts, her art is her heart.
Don Dudu
Facilitator Drama
Adewale Oleolo DonDudu is a multidisciplinary artist, a self-taught visual artist whose theatre practice is a crossover between performance art and performing art. He embarked on his theatre adventure with the Crown troupe of Africa and has performed extensively characterizing multiple roles. DonDudu is a seasoned thespian and currently a guest artist of the National troupe of Nigeria.
Edaoto
Facilitator Music
Edaoto Agbeniyi is a vocalist, musician and band leader of the 11 -piece Afrogenius Band. With his unique folkloric styled Afrobeat sounds stepped deep in Yorùbá culture Edaotor creates songs that propagates and celebrate African aesthetics and values while engaging his listeners intellectually. Edaotor & the Afrogenius band have released several albums and toured extensively in Europe and on the African continent.
Uche Enechukwu
Facilitator Dance
Uche Enechukwu is a Nigerian performance artist with fifteen years of experience both locally and internationally. He trained and performed with the Crown Troupe of Africa, a socially informed theatre group under the tutelage of Segun Adefila. An artist grounded in community engagement with a high degree of self-drive, Enechukwu Uche has co/produced, directed, and participated in various dance theatre productions, festivals, and film as an actor, dancer, creative director, choreographer, and community organiser. Building his performance career as a multidisciplinary artist who uses dance theatre as a tool for communication, intellectual engagement, and cultural development, Uche identifies himself as crusader with a cause. He is co-founding pioneer of Illuminatetheatre productions, a Lagos-based creative lab where young people collaborate to make art aimed at reaching out to every corner of the world.