Strong like Red
Movement as a source of all practice, whether that be dancing or painting. “Life comes from movement” Osayi Osawe says.
Together we looked at what it means to explore the limits of the body and how to find balance on a journey to become strong like red by staying soft.
(click to enlarge the photo)
U gotta keep it like this
Easy
Control
Go on
Go on
Keep going
U gotta keep it like this
Easy
Control
Go on
Go on
Keep going
My Mother was a dancer.
What are you working out for?
Just to be like red.
Red is this old man it's almost like, I think he I like 57 right? And if you see this dude even if you see his face you can see that he's an old guy but maybe you would think he is in his 40s but if you just see his body without his face you would think ‘oh this is a youngin’ you know
Tell me more!
When I actually started doing the research and stuff I saw videos of these calisthenics parks in New York, which is very good because just like that you don't really need money or anything. You just come together and work out. And it also kinda creates a community of old and young people helping each other out in the neighborhood and working out.
And there is this Guy, Red, like he's got a red beard, red hair I think he is a Jamaican man or a Caribbean man. And this dude is like throwing high kicks, flexible as hell and I was like bruvvv that man is the key!
Back in Nigeria, your mother was a dancer?
Yes she was a dancer. The way my mom lives her life she didn't really think about the future that much tho and that kinda caught up to her because when you are old you can not be doing all the dancing again cause your body is also just tired after you've done it for like 10 plus years you know.
But even in times she was going through it she did whatever it takes to make sure, and literally whatever she had to do, to make sure that we were good. That we had a place to stay, that we had food in our mouths, you know what I'm saying.
So I commend her for that and even like, - fuck it life could've been better and I wouldn't have to worry now to take care of two kids and her but talking to her lately and just trying to be more in connection with her I see that she has grown as a person. All the anger issues she had are just kind of gone.
She doesn't beat the kids, cause she used to whoop my ass every day for literally anything.
That's why I'm like she is gonna be all right, she is doing her part and I just gotta do my own part and the kids also understand it too.
Did you ever see her perform?
The first time I saw her perform was when I was 6, she had brought me to her workplace. It was quite a lot you know cause I wasn’t used to that kind of world. I didn’t have a deep connection with my mom during that period. I was a quiet kid and it was a different type of environment than I was used to… but by the 3rd or 4th time, I got used to it and also got more acquainted with the other dancers there.
Through the open window, we can hear kids playing and it seems to be one of the first warmer days. Its late February. Osawe is pouring me another tea. His apartment has an improvised charm to it. Full of life, unmistakably the space of an artist.
Life started in Africa
Yes So that means everybody was black, like you know I’m saying?!
Even the whites right now their ancestor’s ancestors were black but we’ve been here for a long time and we adapt the more we move out. Even me the amount of time I’ve lived here (in the Netherlands) my skin tone changed, just by being here for twelve years. Like in Naij, my skin was more brownish, bronzeish you know what I mean? I still get like that in the summer. But thinking about people moving out the equator after generations and generations and thousands of years, changes happen.
Pretty insane to think about it, how evolution happens…
And you know everybody is fucking each other, and you know, creating babies, so scientists say that in like thousands of years if we make it till then… Everybody is gonna have a color similar to you and lets say more like caramel…
Everybody is probably going a look pretty similar…
Yea, and the skin tones will be more like… Blackish *whispers Blackish? *whispers back
We Laugh
Life started in Africa.
A lot of the time I hear people saying only the girlies need to work on their butt, but actually men do too! I see a lot of men walking around with a flat asses like bruv arent you ashamed! No cheeks none’
Oh really? laughs
Yes, get to work men!
Laughing
I can't believe in Jesus because Jesus is a man
Oh I’ve read this book! (Paulo Coelho the alchemist, there is a small stack of books laying next to a painting)
These books, I have never finished these. The only book I've finished here is the Bible
U finished the Bible?
I've had that bible since I was like 9
Do you believe in Jesus?
I can't believe in Jesus because Jesus is a man
even tho he is the son of godChristianity is just nahhh
It's not what my ancestors have been doing.
I'm not saying that there is no truth in Christianity, I feel like there is (a) truth in a lot of religions. From the perspective of what it's trying to teach us, there is a lot we can learn from it, spiritually.
Absolutely! But even tho I was raised christan, the fact that the Bible was used as the main tool to reinforce white supremacy, is something I simply can’t ignore...
Let's not forgot the original bible was written in Hebrew and Hebrew is a very difficult language to translate.
The Bible has been translated so many times…You know that game where you tell somebody something in their ear and then it comes back to you after only like five people and you are like that is not what I’ve said! laughs
God is just like a Dad sometimes you know like a parent! You know how parents sometimes just punish you for dumb shit…
We laugh
I was everybody's scapegoat when I was growing up, I was always the Blacksheep
laughs
So I had to go through a lot of those things (emotional and physical violence) so I kinda got used to it and just laughed and shit. Because I swear to god, the number of times I wanted to kill everybody there like...I could've but I decided not to because who would've taken care of the two kids.
I think often it’s about finding a position for things or situations and then sticking with it for a while.
I often find myself, when it comes to my family that my emotions shift. What I feel for them switches because it's not that black or white. Besides the anger, there are so many other emotions…So yea not that it's easy but finding a position and sticking with for a while, has helped me.
Within those two years that I've lived there, (in Nigeria with his stepdad's mother) I've lost a shit ton of weight. I am a person that walks really fast right now and that actually happened because she would give me money and tell me to walk maybe like three kilometers and tell me to get food somewhere. She’d tell me ‘You need to be back within twenty minutes’ It was in the mornings, without eating anything. You have to realize that you are going to a Nigerian restaurant to get food, go there, get the food, first of all, you have to order the food and this is at a junction you know how busy the junction is and then get the food, but the food shouldn't be shaking or anything.
run the way there, but I had no time (watch) so I became very good at like counting seconds
What does a child think about during those long tracks? Did you literally count or would you drift away?
I would say since I was 8 years old and even when I was living with my Dad so for over 10 years I’ve been in a constant state of anxiety and stress but I didn't know it myself.
Survival mode...
I've lost so much weight, I started stealing, I lost all kinds of social life I had because I was either helping cooking, well on the other hand now I know how to cook my own food and I don’t need to be getting food outside uhhmmm cooking, cleaning the house. You know like in a Nollywood movie and you have this like house girl who is just being mistreated like a slave almost.
But through that, I started running.
Have u ever tapped into kemetic yoga?
I literally just found this guy online and I was like wtf! laughing
I love kemetic yoga! There are these great postures that look like these ancient hieroglyphs
Wait there is one, how does it go again,-
Like this, can you go like this?
And you look like this
Ohh shit!
So you go like this...
Yea you sit on that leg
Yea...
And the other one goes like this...
Then you go like this!
Hopefully, I just have enough time on this earth to keep on learning.
Nothing in my life has gone smoothly and I guess that is just part of my story. Thats how I see it these days, I try not to lose it because at the end of the day, for what I have been able to do in the time that I’ve been here and in the time that I have been living on my own and the way picked myself up again it's like shiiiiiit!
Very impressive!
I made it to a stage where I don't need to be working every day Damn!
laughs
So I can just, do THIS! Like five days in a row.
If I am not working I want to be working on myself, on my health, on my craft, or on learning something! As long as I’m doing something/ I keep moving I’ll be good!
This weather is a bless for real!
Pours us another tea
We should go outside!
Yes! You wanna go for a walk? Then I can show you the golf park
Sure!
Yo gonna like it! You really gonna like it!
Photos and text by Carla Chibude
text edit by Clare Adamson