Reason I created performing arts society –Sarah Boulos

When the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria was set up in 2005, it had the aim of creating a world standard for performing arts education and expression in Nigeria. But the Lebanese-French founder and chairperson of the organisation, Sarah Boulos, recently revealed to Saturday Beats that there was a deeper, underlying reason for its creation.

Boulos said, “When I first came to Lagos 21 years ago, I was a very driven person, especially for charity because I was born in Burkina Faso and one of my mentors was Thomas Sankara. As I grew older and I came back to Lagos, I saw the need to do something more, particularly when I became born again in 2000, I asked God what He wanted me to do to make Him smile and He said, ‘dance for me.’ After getting more divine insights, I knew that God wanted me to do something related to performing arts. I started the journey in my garage in Ikoyi when I turned it to a dance studio. Here we are now 12 years later, about to host the third edition of Spanfest, which is a festival of arts and culture. Getting finance has been one of our biggest challenges, but the amazing thing is that whenever we want to hold any programme and we don’t have money, sponsors would just show up and give us what we need.”

Speaking more about Spanfest 2017, which comes up this month, she said, “For this edition, our aim is to give back to the city of Lagos that has hosted us all these years. It is about showcasing the thriving arts culture in the land. And that’s why the theme is ‘My Beat, My City.’ It will be five days of intensive music, dance and drama workshops and mind-blowing performance-packed events. After the festival, we also have a new season coming up called Beyond the Unknown. For every programme that we organise, we make sure that the minds of the attendees are expanded so that they go out and do even greater things. And after all our events, people blossom and begin to make impact in their different communities. During SPANFEST, they meet a lot of people. In fact, I usually say that SPANFEST is like the hub of creativity; a networking avenue for the performing arts. Over the years, we have trained thousands of people at our workshops.

source: Punch