Toulouse,
Born 1944, Porto Novo, Benin
The artistic movement into which I insert my own work, even though it is deeply rooted in popular traditions, is not at all a return to the roots. On the contrary, we pursue a way that is altogether different and resolutely urban, reflecting the modern context within which so many of us, Africans of our time, must live and move and have our being. The Africa of skyscrapers, the Africa of international alliances. We do not want to see black dance constrained. We want it to flourish freely as a living ferment of modern civilization, and in the modern civilization of this world, we want black dance to establish the position of respect it deserves. Hence it shall play its animating and creative part.
In Africa, we dance to express our feelings and the ideas of our feelings. I am working on these ideas/feelings and that gives to the dance all the understanding through the way of symbolic pictures.
Choreographer, dance teacher, dancer.
2004 Creation of Fagaala, a co-choreography with Kota Yamasaki/Japan, for 7 African dancers; premiered in U.C. Riverside, USA
2001 Creation of the solo Tchoura, premiered in La Rochelle, France
1995 Z. - Creation for the Company of the City of Sao Paulo / Brazil (Bale Da Cidade De Sao-Paolo), as a tribute to the national hero Zumbi, with the original music by Gilberto Gil. Premiered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1994 Yewa, Eau Sublime (Sublime water), for 7 dancers and 4 musicians. Premiered at the Opera in Lyon /France, September 6th, 1994, at the Dance Biennal.
1989 Afrique, Ce Corps Memorable, (Africa, this memorable body)
based on poems from the famous politician and poet L.S. Senghor; premiered in Bale, Switzerland.
1988 Ye'ou (The awakening) that won, in 1991, the London Dance and Performance Award; premiered in Frankfurt, Germany.
1987 Sahel, premiered in Toulouse, France.
1999 Decorated as "Pionner Woman" by the Senegalese Ministry of the Family and the National Solidarity.
1991 The London Dance and Performance Award won for the choreography Ye'ou.
Awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Merite, Officier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic, and Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Lion of Senegal.
