Moses Olayinka Akintunde
Lagos | Montpellier
Moses Olayinka Akintunde was born in the Bariga area of Lagos. He is an indigene of Oyo State, the last born of a family of 7.
His prodigious talents sought him out early age of 4 – displaying exceptional dancing skills and a rare performance streak at such a tender age. Soon, he was awarded the Special Recognition award in his community for such a rarefied ability. The multiplicity of his gifting includes dance, football, drumming, acting, modeling and acrobatics. In recognition of his bundle of talents, Moses was awarded the Special Recognition in the community as the Best Dancer in the year 2018.
His professional career began at age 8 with the Footprints of David Arts Academy – a phenomenal Children Theatre Arts Troupe in Bariga – an avant-garde theatre organisation operating in the Bariga area of Lagos that seeks to discover raw artistic talents in children, training them in the arts as well as laying the bedrock of good morals and proper education for the young budding talents.
He hones his creative niche, learning the ropes of the stage, both in dance and theater, with already some laurels to his name. Significantly, he has been involved in numerous performances at both local and international levels. At the age of 11, he is among the few children in the company to embark on tours across Europe and Israel for six years as part of the production of SORRY – a collaborative theatrical project by the Monster Truck company, supported by the Goethe-Institut.
Moses has also collaborated with notable figures in the arts world such as Qudus Onikeku, Professor Wole Soyinka (Africa’s first Nobel laureate), Seun Awobajo (founder of Footprints of David Arts Academy), to name a few.
He has performed in front of dignitaries from around the world, including His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ooni of Ife (Ojaja II), French President Emmanuel Macron, and German President Joachim Gauck. In addition to dance, Moses holds a certificate in photography from CANON. For the media, he has been interviewed by the BBC International Service.
He is a member of the Society for Performing Arts in Nigeria.
In the 2023–24 academic year, he trained in the technical and performer program at Epsedanse Montpellier and joined the NID company under the direction of Anne-Marie Porras. At the À Pas de Loup choreographic competition, he was awarded first prize.
In January 2024, he joined camin’cubateur, a mentorship program for emerging artists. His first personal work shown in Montpellier was the solo When…?, a work-in-progress presented and noted during the HYPE OCC CONNEXION festival in February 2024. The piece has been invited to the Lugar Futuro festival in Portugal in 2025. Alongside Siaka Coulibaly, he developed the duet Crossroads, presented by Scène Nationale de Sète and the CND as part of the 1km de danse event in 2024.
After passing the entrance audition, he will join the advanced dance training program at CNDC Angers (directed by Noé Soulier) in September 2024. There, he will work with choreographers such as Mathilde Monnier, Emmanuelle Huynh, and Maud Blandel.
Following his first prize at À Pas de Loup, Moses received an invitation to present a new creation as part of the 2025–26 season. He is seizing this opportunity to develop a new choreography, Abode (“Home”), which will premiere on October 24, 2025, at Théâtre La Scène in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc (Montpellier).
Photos © Marion Jordane, Dirk Korell
