#Germaine Acogny

[warningsine]

Africa’s most celebrated dancer and choreographer, Germaine Acogny, turns 80 on 28 May. I have had the privilege of meeting the Senegalese artist, learning from her, and interviewing her as part of my ongoing research into African contemporary dance.

This is a hymn to an African woman who has inspired not only African dancers but a global community of artists to think differently about who they are, their bodies, their skin, and indeed the way they move.

In a continent plagued by legacies of colonisation, racism and patriarchy, Acogny has risen up as a female artist who has defied stereotypes around her Blackness, her femaleness and her long tall body, to become one of the world’s most revered dance makers.

Who is Germaine Acogny?

Born in 1944 in Porto Novo in Benin, Acogny moved with her family and settled in Senegal as a young girl. She is often referred to as Africa’s mother of contemporary dance, because of her long performing, teaching and choreographic career. She has built the legacy of a dance company, Jant-Bi, and her now globally recognised school and dance centre in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, called École des Sables (Place in the Sand).

As a young girl in Dakar, Acogny attended Catholic school. Feeling alienated from the language, the religion and the colonial rituals, she took refuge in sport. This eventually led to her attending the Simon Siegel School for dance and sport in Paris in 1962. She set out to become a physical training teacher.

Encountering western dance for the first time, and being the only Black (and African) student in her class, she was made to feel that she was not “right” and her shape was “wrong”. Instead of being defeated, Acogny began to invent movements that corresponded to her own body. She told me:

I have taken my flat feet, my big behind and African woman’s hips, my tall west African body, and made this the centre.

A meeting with African American dancer Katherine Dunham, who was trying to establish a dance school in Senegal, was the final impetus for Acogny in her journey to find a dance language that spoke to her. The Germaine Acogny technique is now celebrated as one the first codified systems for training African urban or contemporary dancers.

Acogny has received numerous awards, among them a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and a Bessie Award in New York. She has been bestowed with multiple honours from the governments of both Senegal and France.

And she continues to tour the world with her work. While much of the running of her school now rests on her son Patrick Acogny, she also continues to teach and share her dance wisdom globally.

Contribution to contemporary dance

Understanding what Acogny has done for both dance training and performance leads to a reflection on the nature of contemporary dance. Difficult to define, contemporary dance is an open form with the intention to create new dance languages that engage the “contemporary” (the current moment).

In Africa this is a rich interplay between traditional dance forms, European and American modern dance histories and methodologies, and the ongoing search for authentic contemporary African voices that speak to ideas of culture, politics, self and identity.

South African dance writer Adrienne Sichel notes that this definition could further include contemporary dance’s “invention and reinvention of artistic and cultural forms and functions and its ability to disrupt, displace, connect and survive”.

Acogny was one of the first African dance makers to openly disrupt the European norm of a white, rail thin, weightless female dancing body. She actively sought ways to express her own Blackness and her own west African dance rhythms, and indeed her own gendered journey to finding a voice for herself. Her work often reflects on her own history and her embodied understanding that women’s bodies are often the greatest spoils of war, genocide and patriarchy.

Two great works

With her belief that we carry our histories in our bodies, two of Acogny’s dance works in particular stand out.

The first is a collaboration with Japanese dance maker Kota Yamakazi in 2004, with a work called Fagaala (Genocide). It journeys into the horrifying memory of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. This is a dance storytelling that offers a connection between the contemporary Japanese art form of Butoh (often called “the dance of death”) and Acogny’s own unique west African contemporary dance style.

In Fagaala, Acogny worked only with the male Senegalese dancers in her company and asked them to explore what it meant to be female and live through the Rwandan massacres. So, while the dancers were male, the work explored female stories. Male dancers had to physically and emotionally understand – and perform – the consequence of rape and torture, two tactics of the genocide. This means confronting the horror of men and war.

The second work is the deeply personal solo that Acogny created and performed in 2015 at the age of 71. Called Somewhere at the Beginning, this is Acogny’s journey back into her own maternal and paternal histories that criss-cross her dual west African heritages of Benin and Senegal.

She unearths the devastating visceral effects of colonial Christianity, while at the same time connecting with the suppressed power of her grandmother’s Yoruba spirituality. The work is a palimpsest of dance, video, text, and the layering of Black African female histories as she confronts loss and memory. Somewhere at the Beginning is significant not least for its unique feminist decolonial storytelling; it offers the audience the glorious, unprecedented body of an older African matriarch dancing truth to power.

As Acogny turns 80, this is an anthem of praise to the living legacy of a female dance maker who has helped shape Africa’s significant contribution to dance by rethinking bodies, histories and identity itself.

[dakar2023-archidev]

[afrotumble]

📷 Wolfgang von Wangenheim

Mother of African dance, Germaine Acogny of Senegal, with one of her dancers.

[partenaires-jaiunticket]

FOR GODS ONLY

Du 28 novembre au 7 décembre 2024

Au Théâtre du Rond-Point

Le chorégraphe Olivier Dubois répond une nouvelle fois à l’appel du Sacre. Après l’opus conçu pour Germaine Acogny en 2014, il poursuit, avec For Gods Only, sa collection de Sacre(s) du printemps qu’il confie cette fois-ci à la danseuse étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot, pour qui il confesse une admiration sans bornes. Et c’est précisément la figure de la légende qu’il questionne ici. Devenir une icône, n’est-ce pas se faire déposséder de sa destinée ? Devenir le musée de soi-même ? Étoile éternelle, Marie-Agnès Gillot devient samouraï sous le regard d’Olivier Dubois. Comme chez Nijinski, elle incarne l’Élue et offre sa vie en sacrifice aux yeux du monde. Précise, habitée, céleste, elle exécute une danse inouïe et nous illumine de son immense talent.

N’hésitez plus, vous pourrez vous aussi dire, J’ai un ticket :

[sdeet]

気になる公演

ダイアログ・イン・ザ・ダーク 夏季限定プログラム「暗闇の夏祭り 能登を想う夏」

ダイアログ・イン・ザ・ダークは光を完全に遮断した空間で、視覚障害のある方にアテンドされながら様々な体験をするプログラムです。

能登の応援企画の一種のようですが、石川県輪島市の御陣乗太鼓保存会が参加しているらしく、どういう内容なのか気になる。

ボリス・シャルマッツがピナのカフェ・ミュラーの解釈拡張作品を制作しているらしい

めっちゃ観たい。

ピナといえば、コロナ禍で延期しまくってたアフリカのダンサーで構成された『春の祭典』の日本公演が今年ようやっとありますね。

以前セネガルの砂浜での上演バージョンを映像で見ましたが、春の祭典はやっぱ生で見たいよね。

ところで会場が東京国際フォーラム ホールCになってて、なんで？　ってなった。いや……延期になる前の情報段階ではオーチャードホールだったので。ピナの春の祭典は劇場でも床に土をしきつめてやる上演なのでできそうな場所・タイミング・予算とかでなんかいろいろあるんかな。あと円が爆安になっているのでいろんなものがきつそう。日本公演やるよ！て最初に想定した金額で絶対収まらなくなってるだろうし。

オペラ・バレエ関係もそうだが、ここ十年ぐらいずっと「海外作品呼ぶのがきつくなってる」と言われ続けているのがいよいよ「まじで無理」まできつつある。小品はともかく大規模プロダクションの引っ越し公演自体が、環境負荷懸念などもあって避けられつつあるというのもあるけど、単純に金がない。つらいね。こうやって世界の潮流が把握できなくなっていくんだなあとじわっと感じる。余談だが、２０１０年代に「日本は世界で大人気で経済も上がり調子！」みたいなこと言うひとたちがいっぱいいて本当に不思議だった。いや、不思議では全然なくて、見ている情報が違うからそれぞれそう思ってるてだけなんだけど、経済も上がり調子！みたいな感じは舞台を観ている者の感覚としては全然なくて、文化活動に金払う企業体本当に減ったなと思うし国内の公演規模はどんどん縮小して��くし「衰退しているのが実感としてめっちゃある」だったので。とはいえこれは私が見ている範囲のことなので、立場が違えば見えているものがちがうことはわかる。2.5次元系の舞台は昔と比べてめちゃめちゃ増えたしミュージカル系とかはいろいろあっても相変わらずずっとやってると思うが、私の見ているものはいわゆる「固定ファンがボリュームとしてずっといて金払ってくれるのではない・商業ではないタイプの公演」なため社会に余剰があるときでないと維持できない文化なので。今の状態はなるべくしてなっていて、突然のことでは全然ないんだよな。商業だとファンの熱狂と応援力で本家をうごかすみたいな感触があると思うけど、私が見ているジャンルは「ファンの努力」みたいなものが起こりづらいジャンルなんよ。ファンでいることは可能だけど。

話を戻すと、ピナの作品は舞台上に水場作ったり開始早々巨大な壁を倒壊させたり物理的な問題が色々あるので(劇場の床が耐えられないとか）実現できる会場が限られる、という問題は以前からあるので、場所選定からたいへんそうだよね。

「春の祭典」が強い作品すぎるのでピナ作品の公演であることが大きく出ているけど、同時上演のジェルメーヌ・アコニーGermaine Acogny作品がすごい気になる。とても観たい。

[axuxut]

Tchourai, solo de Germaine Acogny

[antonio-velardo]

Antonio Velardo shares: Review: At the Armory, Calm Awaits the Fury of ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Gia Kourlas

By Gia Kourlas In a Dance Reflections program, Malou Airaudo and Germaine Acogny’s duet “common ground[s]” precedes Pina Bausch’s “Rite.” Published: November 30, 2023 at 12:39PM from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/XWMaucv via IFTTT

[micro961]

Bruno Genèro - Ekùn

Il primo singolo che anticipa il terzo disco del percussionista italiano

“Guardo e non vedo, ascolto e comprendo” La musica come bussola per abbracciare con coraggio il nostro cammino
 “Ekùn” è il singolo eponimo che anticipa il nuovo progetto musicale di Bruno Genèro, scritto a quattro mani con il DJ produttore Alain Diamond, dove il tamburo dialoga con la musica Techno-House, in un’espressione di World Music sempre più contaminata e contemporanea. Un racconto autobiografico delle esperienze vissute nei 40 anni di carriera viaggiando, insieme al suo tamburo, in 3 continenti (Africa, Europa, America e Isole caraibiche).

«Ekùn, il leopardo, era stanco di cacciare. Spesso s’interrogava sul perché non potesse cibarsi d’altro. Poi si rese conto che quella era la sua Natura, e che non poteva cambiarla. Così decise di rispondere per sempre ad un richiamo profondo».

Parte da queste parole la creazione del brano dove il tema è l'ascolto.

«Penso che ascoltando dentro di noi, troviamo sempre le risposte alle nostre domande profonde. Il brano descrive il mio approccio al ritmo e la mia essenza di musicista. Nel mixaggio ho evidenziato il suono del Djembe come se fosse una chitarra solista o una voce, il tamburo parla, racconta, usando un linguaggio antico ma con un'intenzione estremamente contemporanea. Come il leopardo che decide di rispondere a un richiamo profondo, così la musica diventa la bussola che ci dà la direzione per abbracciare con coraggio il nostro cammino. “Ekùn” rappresenta l'album perché racchiude in sé tutti gli ingredienti: suoni techno-house, voci e ritmi afro, ispirando immagini e passi di danza. Attraverso un arpeggio di chitarra, i tamburi e i suoni analogici creano un tappeto ritmico-armonico aprendo il brano a nuovi orizzonti musicali». Bruno Genèro

Una musica capace di crescere ad ogni ascolto poiché nasce da un'esigenza profonda che diventa una vera e propria ventata di aria fresca, non solo per il corpo, ma anche per l'anima.

Bruno Genèro è un djembefolà italiano. Musicista e virtuoso di uno strumento leggendario come il djembé, tamburo malinke, sopravvissuto a secoli di storia per trionfare, alle soglie del nuovo millennio, nel panorama internazionale della musica. Inizia a studiare batteria jazz e classica e all’età di 17 anni incontra a Parigi la percussione africana, dove inizia la sua passione per il djembe. Dal 1980 al 2005 si forma vivendo fra Africa (Senegal. Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso e Costa d’Avorio) e Cuba. Fondatore della Kaidara Dance Company (1984), con la sorella danzatrice-coreografa Katina Genero, la compagnia si esibisce in Italia, Africa e Canada. Fondatore del gruppo musicale Bruno Genero Ensemble (1990), con il quale si esibisce in Italia, Europa, Africa, America settentrionale e isole caraibiche. RICONOSCIMENTI Nel 1999 partecipa alla prima Biennale Internazionale delle Percussioni in Guinea, promossa dall’Unione Europea, dove viene celebrato come “Miglior djembefolà non africano” durante la serata dei Grandi Maestri. Nel 2000 riceve “La Targa d’Onore al Merito” della Regione Piemonte per il suo operato artistico. COLLABORAZIONI MUSICALI Mamady Keita, Doudou N’Diaye Rose, Sekouba Bambino Diabatè, Alfredo De La Fè, Zap Mama, Zucchero, Teresa De Sio COLLABORAZIONI DANZA Elsa Wolliaston, Germaine Acogny, Irene Tassembedo, Balé de Rua e Larrio Ekson per la danza contemporanea. ALBUM MUSICALI Dopo l’esordio discografico nel 1996 con “Daby-Bâ” e il successivo “Yiri Kan” uscito nel 2006, dal 27 ottobre torna in radio con il nuovo singolo “Ekùn”, brano eponimo che anticipa il suo terzo disco di inediti, questa volta scritto a quattro mani con il DJ e producer Alain Diamond. SPETTACOLO EVENTO TEATRO REGIO DI TORINO TAM TAM (2000) - AFROSAN (2002) – SAFARA’ (2004) – YIRI KAN (2006) - HOMMAGE (2009) - ANCESTROS (20014) -

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Common Grounds

Maarten Vanden Abeele. Danseuses Malou Airaudo, Germaine Acogny.

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[julculture]

Danse contemporaine au Palais des Congrès / Germaine Acogny révélée au public béninois

Le Gouvernement du Bénin a encore respecté son idée de révélation des talents artistiques. C’est ce que le public béninois a assisté, lundi 1er août 2022, au palais des Congrès de Cotonou à travers des spectacles de danses urbaines et contemporaines ....

Soirée d’hommage à Germaine Acogny au Bénin Le Gouvernement du Bénin a encore respecté son idée de révélation des talents artistiques. C’est ce que le public béninois a assisté, lundi 1er août 2022, au palais des Congrès de Cotonou à travers des spectacles de danses urbaines et contemporaines notamment la figure emblématique de la danse Germaine Acogny a été révélée. « Songook Yaakaar ». C’est…

[tournevole]

Tres heureuse d'avoir eu des places pour aller voir ma piece préféré de Pina Bausch par Igor stravinsky par une troupe de Danseurs de toute l'afrique

[pretamemoria]

Acogny Technique

Germaine Acogny (1944), é uma coreografa e dançarina senegalesa, conhecida como mãe da dança moderna africana. Ela desenvolveu uma técnica de Dança africana contemporânea que está profundamente ligada ao imaginário e com a capacidade de concretizar os símbolos.

O conceito corpo-cosmos é a base para que a pessoa que dança se empodere e tenha autonomia para gerir o próprio corpo e as escolhas que fará para alimentá-lo tecnicamente. Trata-se da conexão da pessoa que dança com os contextos ao redor (diálogo da filosofia da vida com o corpo).

Os espaços do corpo recebem nomes específicos para significados:

Os passos são chamados de movimentos, que correspondem a uma série de informações motoras, sensoriais e simbólicas. Essas mobilizações propõem uma relação e entendimento do movimento que ultrapassa a pesquisa de movimentos.

A dança abriga qualidades e paisagens, preocupa-se com a eficiência do gesto mas, sobretudo, com o sentir da dança a partir da perspectiva subjetiva, valorizando as camadas de história da pessoa que dança e a experiência comunitária que conforma e dignifica o ser, rompendo o individualismo e abstração que caracteriza em grande medida o pensamento ocidental eurocêntrico e trazendo à baila prioritariamente um bem estar e satisfação, fruto do equilíbrio com o mundo.

Essa técnica propõe a ideia de relação intercultural em um campo restrito com a sistematização técnica em dança no continente africano.

Referência: SILVA, Luciane. SANTOS, I. F. Colonialidade na dança e as formas africanizadas descrita de si: perspectivas sul-sul através da técnica Germaine Acogny. Conceição | Concept., Campinas, SP, v. 6, n. 2, p. 162–173, jul./dez. 2017.

[darkartsgallery]

L’Appel à la Danse 

est une série de documentaires sur les danses à travers le monde. Le pilote a été réalisé au Sénégal. Ce documentaire de création propose des portraits intimes d’individus qui nous livrent leur raison de danser. Le corps en mouvement s’exprime seul, en groupe, au centre culturel de Dakar, dans un battle de Krump, sur le bord de l’océan, lors des séances de lutte, au cœur d’une cérémonie initiatique dans un village.

A travers une succession d’histoires, ce film a pour objectif de capturer la beauté des moments dansés au cœur de l’action, afin de révéler cet instant précieux où le basculement de la conscience laisse place à l’instinct, à l’identité, aux revendications, aux traditions, à l’évasion… Quelle est la source de cette force qui met l’humain en mouvement ? Et tout simplement, pourquoi les gens dansent ?

Audio : Français Sous-titres : Anglais

Production : Screenskin Production Réalisation - Direction artistique : Diane Fardoun Direction de la photographie - Montage : Hugo Bembi Journalisme - Prise son : Pierre Durosoy Composition musicale - Montage son : Julien Villa

Conteur / Voix Off : Thierno Diallo Avec : Khoudia Touré, Pierre "Dexter" Belleka, Germaine Acogny, Siaka Soppo Traoré, Astou "Aicha" Ndiaye, Cie Afreekanam (Pi Lamine Sow, Bakary Fall, Pape Sangone Viera), Moussa, Seny (écurie Ndakarou), Mère Absa, Charles Diagne, Hamdi "Mustafa" Fall, Mama cheikh Fall, Omar "Maestro" Badiane Merci à Brahim Fardoun et Fallou Diagne

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The Call of Dance is a documentary series about dance around the world. The pilot was directed in Senegal. This documentary presents intimate portraits of individuals who share the reason why they dance. Bodies in motion express themselves alone, collectively, at the Dakar cultural center, in a Krump battle, on the shore of the ocean, during wrestling sessions, at the heart of an initiatory ceremony in a village.

Through a wide range of stories, this film aims to capture the beauty of dance, at the heart of the action, in order to reveal these precious shifting moments, when consciousness gives way to instinct, identity, claims, traditions, escape... What is the source of this force that sets humans in motion? And quite simply, why do people dance?

Audio : French Subtitles : English

Production : Screenskin Production Director - Art director : Diane Fardoun Director of photography - Editor : Hugo Bembi Journalist - Sound recordist : Pierre Durosoy Film score composer - Sound editor : Julien Villa

Voice over : Thierno Diallo With : Khoudia Touré, Pierre "Dexter" Belleka, Germaine Acogny, Siaka Sopo Traoré, Astou "Aicha" NdIaye, Cie Afreekanam (Pi Lamine Sow, Bakary Fall, Pape Sangone Viera), Moussa, Seny (team Ndakarou), Mère Absa, Charles Diagne, Hamdi "Mustafa" Fall, Mama cheikh Fall, Omar "Maestro" Badiane Thanks to Brahim Fardoun and Fallou Diagne

Contact/screenings : screenskindocu@gmail.com

[antonio-velardo]

Antonio Velardo shares: Pina Bausch’s ‘Rite of Spring’ Takes Root in Africa by Marina Harss

By Marina Harss A company of dancers from across Africa perform Bausch’s canonical work around the world. “I’ve always felt that this was an African dance,” said Germaine Acogny. Published: November 25, 2023 at 05:01AM from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/EwrPcb9 via IFTTT

[myfunkybdaytv]

NOTV Blog Focus: Borrina Mapaka - Brazzaville. Talking Music, effects Global pandemic in the Creative Industry

NOTV Blog Focus: Borrina Mapaka – Brazzaville. Talking Music, effects Global pandemic in the Creative Industry

NOTV Blog Focus: Borrina Mapaka – Brazzaville. Talking Music, effects Global pandemic in the Creative Industry

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