Battery Dance began its 2011 Africa Tour by first stopping in Lagos, Nigeria and Maseru, Lesotho. In order to visit all four of the African countries part of the tour, the group was split into two smaller teams of three. Robin Cantrell, Sean Scantlebury, and Barry Steele formed one team and traveled to Nigeria and Guinea. Carmen Nicole, Bafana Matea and Mira Cook comprised the other subgroup and worked in Lesotho and Zambia. Robin, Sean, and Barry stayed and worked around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa is bifurcated along sectarian lines; Muslims mainly inhabit the northern part of the countries while Christians reside in the south. Unfortunately, these divisions often lead to political instability and civil strife, making Lagos, the former capital and chief city relatively unsafe.

Despite these challenges the group successfully interacted with the locals and admired their dancing abilities. Robin and Sean were faced with the challenges of miscommunications and a lack of adequate rehearsal space, as the Society for the Performing Arts of Nigeria (SPAN), was the only dance studio in Lagos. Robin found her group to be particularly talented and expressive and enjoyed conducting the Dancing to Connect workshops with a group of 13 dancers between the ages of 21 and 32. After Barry rendered the National Arts Theater’s sound system usable, the students conducted a Dancing to Connect performance while Sean and Robin performed 3 duets at the venue. Additionally, a local traditional African group displayed their own piece.

The team benefited greatly from their relationship with Sarah Boulos of SPAN and Segun Lawal. Sarah came to New York in January 2012, to attend several conferences and meet the rest of the company. Her experience with Battery Dance and the DtC workshops encouraged her to pursue further bilateral engagements with Battery Dance. Four DtC participants from Nigeria were also able to travel to New York to take part in the August 2012 Battery Dance Company’s Downtown Dance Festival.