RIDWAN RASHEED
Ridwan Rasheed is a Nigerian contemporary dancer, Choreographer, researcher and art activist from Bariga, Lagos, with ancestral roots in Oyo State. His practice embodies movement from Yoruba Bata dance traditions with contemporary performance, critical theory, and experimental forms. Working across both formal and informal contexts, he explores the body as a site of ancestral knowledge and resistance, continuously shaped by postcolonial realities. Ridwan’s work destabilizes established traditions, opening space for new cultural dialogues that reconcile historical trauma with contemporary technological experience. His performances merge ancestral rhythm with modern experience, reflecting his commitment to transforming memory, identity, and collective imagination through movement.
Rooted in his upbringing within a less privileged community, Ridwan’s art reflects themes of struggle, faith, and socio-political consciousness. Through his evolving choreographic language, Ridwan continues to expand his artistic reach through international performances and freelance collaborations with German dance companies. His nomination for the 2024 Tanzpreis Award highlights his growing impact within the contemporary dance landscape. He is contributing to the growth of contemporary art in Nigeria.
CHOREOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE
2015 [Nigeria]
Choreographer/Dancer – UNTITLED SERIES
with F.O.D GANG a Protest dance theatre performance on societal stratification and marginalization of some sub-bub areas of Lagos Nigeria on basic infrastructures.
2016–2019 [Germany]
Dancer/Actor – SORRY
A dance theatre collaboration project between the ”FOOTPRINTS OF DAVID (Nigeria) and MONSTER TRUCK (Germany).
2018-2019 [Nigeria]
Choreographer/Dancer – AMUWO
(Initiation), A piece that explores the rite of passage from the Afrocentric perspective.
2020 [Nigeria]
Choreographer/Dancer – IF WE CALL IT ART
This poses to question our modest desires and lofty aspiration. In away, it is a translucent parameter to adjudge our selfhood as against the backdrop of societal expectations.
2020 [Nigeria and Germany]
Co-Choreographer and Director – Clime Metamorphosis
A Dance Film focusing on the response on the issues of climate change, interaction of human and Nature First Premier in Nigeria 2020 and second screening in Germany 2021 then Added to the global climate atmosphere by Company Christoph Winkler.
2022 [Berlin]
Collaborator/Dancer – WE ARE GOING TO MARS
The piece examined the history of the first African space programme in Zambia and its reception over the past 50 years. They also build a bridge to the work of the Afro- American musician Sun Ra, who developed his credo “Space is the place” at the same
time.
2022- [Berlin and Essen]
Co-choreographer/ Dancer- RADIKAL MINIMAL, The thematic approach used in Steve Reich’s piece ‘Come Out’ is especially impressive as it distorts the testimony of a young African American Man who was arrest during the Harlem uprising in 1964 and suffered violence at the hand of the Police. First Premier in Essen, at the German Dance Award Night and then Performed at the Kuhlhaus Berlin.
2023 [Lagos, Hamburg and still touring]
Choreographer/performer – OUTTER SPACE
This is a solo film / live performance that explores different spaces from the Afrocentric credence and her usage in regular times. This performance is set to address and distort the notions of ‘conventional and unconventional’ art /spaces.
2024 – [Nigeria, Vienna, Germany]
Choreographer/ collaborating partner – THE FUTURE IS WHAT?
This collaborative project was inspired from the feminism coat “This year will be female”. Does this mean the future being female erases other gender type or what is the future?
2025 – [Germany and Nigeria]
Collaborator/Dancer – WHISPERS OF WOOD
the ChatGPT was asked for stories and myths that reflect the relationship between artificial intelligence and bodies. One of the results was a story about a wooden horse from the Yoruba culture in West Africa.
2025 – [Nigeria]
Concept/Choreographer/Dancer – UNTIL WE…
A theatrical Dance piece that expresses some powerful movement in the Nigerian revolutionary era. As a tribe and as a nation and individual we reflects on the false we have been told to relied on as history.
2025 – [Nigeria]
Concept and Choreographer — SEVENTH TRIBE
This piece explores Abiku Mythology with the Nigerian street dance style. With seven popular street dancers and sound artist, we produced the first interpretation of Abiku through street dance moves.
2025 – [Berlin]
Choreographer and collaborator – NONE OF MY BUSINESS
In “None of My Business,” the Filet + Friends collective, in collaboration with activists, examines climate (in)justice: the discrepancy between responsibility for climate change and the impacts on those who have contributed least. The starting point is the uprising of 600 women in the Niger Delta: one of the most oil-rich, yet most exploited regions in Africa. For ten days, they occupied the offices of Shell and Chevron, unarmed, but with a powerful threat: to show their bare asses to those in power.
Collaborations
BODIES OF WATERS. [LAGOS AND BERLIN] funded by NEUSTARTKULTUR,
SENATSVERWALTUNG FUR KULTUR UND EUROPA.
OLA – [LAGOS AND NEITHERLANDS] funded by the Switzerland Embassy]
THE FUTURE IS WHAT? – [LAGOS AND VIENNA] funded by “Kulturinitiativen Wien
ZANGEZI [Lagos and Germany] Funded by KULTURSTIFTUNG
Worked with; Seun Awobajo, Segun Adefila ,Christoph Winkler, Micheal Kaddu, Rachel Uwa, Aloali Tapu , Qudus Onikeku , Sahar Rahimi ,Lois Alexander , Chris salter , Flora egbonu, Matondo Marie, Lena Elsa Kolle, Johanna Maria Schwaiger