Itw with choeographer/dancer/artistic director Henri Oguike

Fukiko Takase, by Nuno Santos

Award-winning choreographer Henri Oguike and his successful dance company are celebrating ten years with a Spring 09 UK Anniversary Tour, showcasing some of its best works. Catch a Vibe caught up with the man himself during rehearsals at Greenwich Dance Agency.

You started the tour back in January, has it been a great run?
It’s been going OK. I haven’t been on tour as much, as changes for the future are happening now. I’m not doing the same company stuff next year, i.e. touring. There’s going to be a new management and some new members of the board – one or two key people are also leaving. But touring wise it’s been going well as far as I know. There have been good reviews and feedback, especially with this particular programme in retrospect of old pieces.

What has it been like to revisit earlier dance works? Have you had to make any significant changes choreographically?
I’ve tried to avoid fussing with it too much. There was a piece way back called Seen of Angels, danced to Handel’s Messiah. I originally made it on another company, a commission, but I decided to take it on myself. A little refurbishment, a little touch here and there and it ended up a whole inside out thing. I couldn’t actually even finish it then. I learnt my lesson, from that, you know, (to) leave some of the old stuff alone.

You’re half Nigerian and half Welsh. Do you think this is where your talent for musicality comes from?
I don’t know. It wasn’t like there was anything obvious in my background; I was a bit of a wanderer as a kid. My dad had the idea of starting a business in Nigeria. He took myself and my mother out there. Going to school and so on, I’ve just got memories of me wandering around, not really engaging with anything that was [formally] set up like music lessons or dance lessons. And then we moved again. I don’t think I’ve ever settled in one place, whether it be friends or family. It wasn’t until my late teens that I did dancing, music, enjoyed a bit of art in school.

You also work with some of the finest dancers in contemporary dance. Does this allow you great freedom as a choreographer?
There’s potentially freedom but because of the way we have to operate there’s a lot of restraint. To really get to know the company, to get to the core of it is really tough as an RFO company. At the same time that’s how I want to work, part RFO, touring the world but also as a project group, research and development – that hasn’t been built in so well. Therefore I can’t take advantage of the unique areas the dancers may bring.

You also run H2O your sister company, is it still involved in educational work?
It doesn’t really exist. It was an idea that initially started out as a youth group and then became an apprentice company, but again funding was difficult, the main company wasn’t really stable enough. Maybe it’s all to do with how good you are at raising funds. It’s something for the future. It’s alright trying to put out quality but some people seem to have that flair to attract the right funds, or have somebody within the organization who can do that. I need that now. It’s something I’m going to have to absorb more of, becoming a sort of artistic businessman without losing the integrity.

Producing two works a year for the company is a lot of work. How do you continue to be inspired to create? Is it through the music?
The music thing, that label, was something I was asked at college, The Place (London Contemporary Dance School) and then I was given money from the Robin Howard [Theatre] and Westminster. I thought ok let’s try and do something specific. Other pieces had a similar approach and I got labeled as the dance and music man. But I have very strong interests in other areas. I doodle with all sorts of creative software, film, image, sound. All those things interest me – the approach. Maybe I’ve never been organized enough to hone in and say this and that is exactly what I want to do, and bring it. I try things. So as far as what inspires, it comes from anywhere now.

Although you’re a black choreographer the company and your work have never been categorized as just “black dance”. Why do you think you’ve enjoyed such mainstream success in the contemporary dance scene?
I’ve not made any noise about it in that way. In Nigeria they’d make fun of me, I was the yellow pepper. And then here, when I first came there was some of the rougher names, but I didn’t get the meaning. Having been that wandering [boy], little things pulling you in different directions, I don’t think I paid that much attention. If that’s a good thing or not I don’t know. At this point in time I believe it was a good thing, as we try and teach children and new generations coming up about labeling. You can get tangled up politically with it, and so it’s really down to the individual, regardless of what is said out there.

And the next ten years? Where do you think you’ll be?
Maybe on a street corner asking for a pound. I don’t know, I’m trying to allow life and work, that relationship to chill out a little. It’s been ten years with a lot of change, a lot of attention to things that maybe distracted from life in general. I’m at a stage like a crossroads. (I) feel like I’ve been here for ages, just poised, either waiting for the wind to blow me over if I take a step or go with it. The wandering boy image. There’s uncertainty, moments of groundedness and confidence. [It’s] a bit mixed up.