The QDanceCenter is an offshoot of CREATIVE CULTURE SUPPORT FOUNDATION, with a sister company (YK Projects) in Paris. We operate as a creative incubator, which applies artistic competence, human resources, innovation and creativity, as capacities for contents development.
At QDC, we recognize that innovation usually happen when two or more sets of knowledge collide. Often, art and business operates in different worlds, our ability to operate ‘at the edge’ as a social enterprise, led to new ways of doing. We work exclusively with creative young people to have our place in the future.
We are focused on creating new interests for the arts in Nigeria and beyond. In less than three years of operations, we became Nigeria's preeminent creative organisation, with a global reputation.
Qudus Onikeku is a movement artiste made of diversity. Over the decade, he has established himself as one of the preeminent multitalented artistes, working today with different media: performance, research, installation, curating and community organizing. He is the co-founder and artistic director of QDance Center Lagos.
Qudus’ international artistic practice intersects between his interest in visceral body movements, kinesthetic memory, disruptive practices and finding new vocabularies for performances that aren’t centralizing Eurocentric approaches, embracing an artistic vision and a futurist practice that both respects and challenges Yoruba culture and contemporary dance. He has created a substantial body of critically acclaimed work that ranges from solos to group works, as well as artiste-to-artist collaborations with visual artists or architects, musicians or writers, multimedia artistes or scientists.
Qudus Onikeku has participated in major exhibitions and festivals across 56 countries including Venice Biennale, Biennale de Lyon, Festival d’Avignon, Roma Europa, TED Global, Torino Danza, Kalamata Dance Festival, Dance Umbrella, Bates Dance Festival etc. His dance works is in the eprmanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. He has been a visiting professor of dance at the University of California Davis and Columbia College Chicago.
Qudus is currently the first "Maker in Residence" at The Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship of the University of Florida - 2019-2022.
Alli Hajarat holds a M.A in Human Resources from Institut de Gestion Social - France, and a B.A in European Languages from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The QDanceCenter; Nigeria’s preeminent creative organization with an international reputation. Before the QDanceCenter, Hajarat was the Administrative Managing Director of YK Projects France; where she oversaw all administrative and managerial aspects of the company, where she also worked on grant making and managed a 3 years government funding for the organization.
Previously, she served as Human Resources generalist intern at the Adecco Group Paris. She was also the Human Resources manager of one of Nigeria’s leading advertising agency - DDB Lagos. Her other positions have included Administrative Assistant to the Director of the French economic mission in Lagos and was an arts administration and management intern at the prestigious “centre national des arts du cirque” in Chalons-en-champagne, France.
Aside from her professional endeavors, Hajarat is equally the founder and organizer of “the mummies lounge series” a strictly female only event, she is also the creative director of IreDesigns, a home improvement brand.
Hajarat currently shares her time between Lagos, Paris and Gainesville where she works with The Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship of the University of Florida as Research Assistant.