Meet Jeleel Ojuade, a child dancer in the 70s who became the first Professor to present an inaugural lecture in the area of Dance Studies and Practice in any Nigerian University, in this chronicles by Folorunso Fatai Adisa
On Thursday, November 11, 2021, a Professor of Dance Studies at the Performing Arts Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State, Northcentral Nigeria, Jeleel Ojuade, delivered the 208th in the series of the University’s inaugural lecture entitled, ‘Dance is Life, Life is Dance: A Cyclical Nature of Man on Earth.’ With his delivery, he became the first Yoruba Professor of Dance in Nigeria and the first person to present an inaugural lecture in the area of Dance Studies and Practice in Nigeria .
Ojuade began his trajectory as an active dancer with his father, Alhaji Fatai Ojuade — a famous dance practitioner, troupe at the age of four— troupe as he followed them to perform at installation ceremonies, seminars, workshops and so on. He would later—as a child dancer— become the youngest member of the National Theatre of Nigeria which represented Nigeria at the XII Commonwealth Games and Warana Festival in Brisbane, Australia (1982) and a performance tour of the Federal Republic of South Korea in 1983. He was also a part of the troupe that danced at Nigeria’s Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977.
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Born on April 18, 1969, Ojuade is a researcher and dancer, with specialty in Yoruba Bata and Dundun dances. He holds a PhD in Performance Studies (Dance) from the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. He joined the services of UNILORIN as an Assistant Lecturer with the Department of Performing Arts on April 21, 2001, and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Dance in the Department in 2017.
On Saturday 13, November 2021, he will be installed as the Aare Alasa of Ifetedo, at a ceremony to be hosted by the Olubosin of Ifetedo, Oba Akinola Akinrera (Latiri I) in Ifetedo, Osun State.
Prof. Ojuade is the President, Association of Dance Scholars and Practitioners of Nigeria, and a member of several other professional bodies including the Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists, National Association for the Promotion of Studies in Arts and Social Sciences, and Dance Guild of Nigeria. He featured in local, state, national and international performances/competitions and has been a guest lecturer at ivy league universities in the US and elsewhere.
It is noteworthy that he is a researcher and an expert dancer, with a special interest in Yoruba Bata and Dundun dances. The promising and precocious traits of character he displayed as a child dancer in the late ‘70’s has manifested today as he turns a prominent face of dance practice, both as an intellectual proponent and active practitioner in Nigeria.
Folorunso, Fatai Adisa, writes in from Ilorin..
folorunsofatai03@gmail.com
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