Portrait of Abraham Onazi

The Artist

About Abraham Onazi

Abraham Onazi is a dynamic dancer and filmmaker affiliated with The Mud Art Company, a pioneering contemporary arts organization based in Kaduna, Nigeria. As a founding member since 2017, he has played an instrumental role in shaping the company's artistic direction and creative identity.

Over the years, Onazi has performed in all four of the company's major productions, demonstrating remarkable versatility and stage presence. He has toured extensively with Walk Production, appearing at internationally acclaimed events such as the Venice Biennale and the Manchester International Festival.

Beyond performance, Onazi serves as the documentary cinematographer for The Mud Art Company — capturing the company's most significant moments through a distinct visual lens that reflects both artistic depth and cultural authenticity.

Artist Statement

Memory, identity, and survival —
written in movement.

I am a choreographer, researcher, performer, and an experimental artist. My work emerges from the living and forgone history and cultural hybridity, rooted in the Nigerian cultural dances and transmuted through contemporary dance.

My practice focuses on how memory, identity and survival manifest in movement. I treat all of these as an archive that the body carries — passed down to us and also shaped by our everyday life.

"

To dance is to remember;
to film is to make remembering eternal.

— Abraham Onazi