STRADDA april 2008
Dance
STEPS ON THE SAND
By creating the Ecole des Sables, International Centre for traditional and contemporary African dances, the choreographer Germaine Acogny also wanted to offer a school of life. Respectful of nature, faithful to Africa, opened to the world.
At about sixty kilometers south of Dakar, in Senegal, on a beach of the Petite Côte, at the bottom of a ravine, is Toubab Dialaw, a fishing village charged with history. For ten years now, around this traditional locality changed into a place of charm for the tourists, modern buildings have been growing like mushrooms.
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THE EXPRESSION 3rd September 2007
CHOREOGRAPHY: THE FRANCO-SENEGALESE, GERMAINE ACOGNY
A new effervescent dance
A real phenomenon of fashion, with the arrival of modern dance, many youth have become interested in choreographic art. Bodily artistic expression is very recent. In Africa, bodily expression is not the same as in the West, except perhaps intimately.
It is important to have African artists as reference, in order to develop and flourish, such as Franco-Senegalese, Germaine Acogny. If the majority of these dances have preserved their original form and their place in traditional society, others have developed, or have merged with dances said to be modern or have just simply inspired new choreographic expression. Many nickname her “mother of contemporary African dance”.
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Ballet Tanz 2009
Germaine Acogny