Back & Forth to Lagos

FG holds workshop on VAIDS in Lagos.

Textile designer and founder of Hazfa Studio Hafza Yusuf runs a weekly textile and art workshop with a number of elderly women in East London. Originally from Somalia, Hafza wants to bring her country's culture back to the women from the community, and bring them back to the skills they left behind when fleeing Somalia.

Once star dancer and choreographer at the New York City Ballet, he broadened his fame when he choreographed and had a role in the 2010 film "Black Swan" and then married his co-star Natalie Portman.

A choreographer whose work reflects the world – gay and trans rights, Black Lives Matter and gender equality – Galen Hooks has been giving virtual classes during the health crisis. You might know her for her work with more than 60 stars of the music world such as Janet Jackson, Justin Bieber, Usher, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. Hooks speaks to Eve Jackson about her 20-year career, going on tour with Snoop Dog while studying for her law degree and the key role of dance in the Black Lives Matter movement.

In the state of Sokoto in Nigeria, a new women-run auto workshop provides new job opportunities for young women, and caters to a growing market of female drivers.

In her hands, dance is an act of activism. Lia Rodrigues has been using movement for more than 40 years to break down barriers, put art within everyone's reach and argue – lyrically and persuasively – for more inclusion and diversity. The choreographer and dancer is a special guest at Paris's Festival d'Automne, where she's staging "Encantado", a hypnotic journey into a world of spiritualism and movement.

As the Paris Opera introduces his contemporary pieces “In Your Rooms” and “Uprising” to its repertoire, Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter tells us about his collaboration with the prestigious institution and how “they went to great lengths” to accommodate his experimental work. With Shechter’s recent work “Contemporary Dance” on stage at La Villette in Paris, he talks about how music and movement can supplant a cerebral conception of art and why he likes to “play the bear” when it comes to expectations. of the public.