The Arts

April 7, 2025

SPAN marks 20 years of artistic excellence

SPAN marks 20 years of artistic excellence

From left: Jindu Chize, Head, SPAN Dance Academy; Agocha Davies, Artistic Director; Remi Jemitola, COO; Yoyin Buko, Head, TeeTumbler Gymnastics; Ella Nwankwo, Head, SPAN Drama Academy; and Lovette Otegbola, Director, Lovette Bits during the SPAN press conference in Lagos.

By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor

What was called a press conference last week Friday at the Alliance Francaise de Lagos by the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria, SPAN, marking 20 years of its activities and the unveiling of its 2025 season titled ‘Raise the Barre, Your Light is On’, turned out to be an occasion for scintillating music and dance performances interspersed with educative documentaries.

First was a brief performance by SPAN Dance Company. Then, an alumni of SPAN, Zosu Ebenezer Adebowale, music composer and saxophonist, put up a brief but impressive performance with his saxophone. Zosu also shared the story of his rise from grass to grace with SPAN’s help.

A message from Mrs. Sarah Fadoul Boulos, Chief Executive Officer and founder of SPAN, made available to the media at the event, read: “For 20 years, SPAN has been a home for creativity and expression, nurturing talents and transforming lives. ‘Raise the Barre, Your Light is On’ is our way of challenging ourselves and our community to reach even greater heights.”

Giving an overview of the work SPAN does, Remi Jemitola, Chief Operations Officer, said SPAN’s “operations in nutshell is creativity, collaboration, excellence and community impact.

“Everything SPAN does and is trying to do,” Jemitola said, “is to promote a better life for everybody at every point in time. So we have tried to focus on the youths over time, (and) on children, and we’re even delving into adults now. Everything we’re putting together in our academic, in our co-curriculum activities, in our sporting activities — everything is for making someone better somewhere.

Going down memory lane, Jemitola said: “When we started SPAN, the challenges now and the challenges at that time (are incomparable). At that time what we had were issues with socio-economic and political problems and poverty. So we wanted to make life better for youths.

“Today we’re dealing with greater menace: drugs. So we have children, and we have youths (whose) time are being wasted on drugs. And when you have youths with drugs problems, it’s the whole community that has that problem, because the family is involved. So for SPAN, we’ve added to the things we’re doing to engage children, youths and adults. Children have the problem of the social media, the youths have the problem of drugs, adults have the problem of depression because of poverty and not being able to meet needs in one way or the other.

“So what we want to see ourselves doing in SPAN is to have that academy (that cater) for the wholeness of life. So we have dance, drama, music. When we have our youths coming and we’re training them and empowering them, we have them occupied…”

According to SPAN, “this monumental season celebrates two decades of impact, innovation, and artistic excellence, reaffirming SPAN’s commitment to shaping Nigeria’s performing arts landscape…‘Raise the Barre, Your Light is On’ represents SPAN’s renewed commitment to pushing boundaries, elevating talent, and creating new opportunities for the next generation of artists.”

The event also recognized 7UP Bottling Company, Eko Hotel & Suites, Indomie Nigeria, Cool 96.9 FM, WAZOBIA TV, STV, Leadway Assurance Plc, PANAR industries, ITB Nigeria Ltd, SCOA Nigerian Plc, and JMG Ltd, who have supported SPAN’s initiatives over the years.