Exploring African Culture through Dance
Featuring Diana Akinyi Odhiambo, Aguibou Bougobali SANOU, and Dr. Emmanuel Cudjoe
Diana Akinyi Odhiambo
Diana is a freelance dancer and choreographer from Kisumu, Kenya where she lives and works. She is skilled in contemporary dance, modern African dance and Hip Hop techniques, and is passionate about dance that expresses a cutting-edge African aesthetic. She is trained in traditional African dances, modern dance, Horton technique, and physical theatre, Germaine Acogny technique, waacking, Embodied voice, Agama Fo, Faso dance, Vocab dance, Performance and Sabar.
She started as a trainee at Yawa Dance Company in 2014, has been a teacher and choreographer in the same company. She has worked with international choreographers including Cornelieu Ganea (Romania/ Netherlands) and Tero Saarinen (Finland). In 2019, she pioneered a project dubbed Afroxelles which subsequently staged a performance titled the Hanging tree.
Diana has been selected to join a 3-year Diploma course offered to thirty dancers from Africa and the Diaspora at Ecole des sables in Senegal and trained by international choreographers including Germaine Acogny, Josepha Madoki, Randolph Mathews, Anani Sanouvi, Serge Aime Coulibaly, Alesandra Seutin, Mamadou Balde and Julie Dossavi.
She has also been under the Mentorship of Dr Funmi Adewole (Lecturer in dance, De Montfort University. UK)
Instagram: @the_akinyi_odhiambo
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Aguibou Bougobali SANOU
Winner of the highly selective and prestigious US State Department Fulbright Scholarship 2018-2019, The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University fellow 2020-2021, Joe’s Pub Grant beneficiary in 2021.
Aguibou Bougobali SANOU is a dancer, performing artist, choreographer, musician, storyteller International Dance Festival Director and dance educator. In 2016, he was a semi-finalist on “Africa’s Got Talent,” and won the Visa pour la creation from the Institut Francais de Paris, Facets Choreographer residency in India. Born in Burkina Faso and raised in Burkina Faso and Mali, West Africa, Aguibou’s work is a mix of West African Mandingo traditional dances, Brazilian capoeira and theater expressions drawn from his experiences with influential European stage directors. His dance goes beyond the simple beauty of movement, it speaks, questions, and disturbs. His dance deconstructs and rebuilds, it balances, touches the heart, and soothes souls. Simply stated, his dance Heals. He designed an African dance curriculum at Naugatuck Valley Community College 2018-2019 and created dance program at the civil prison of Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) by using art as a tool of social transformation, social evolution and community gathering.
Aguibou Bougobali SANOU graduated in Master in Fines Arts in Dance from University of the Arts Philadelphia.
Aguibou found and runs the International Dance Gathering in Public Spaces (IN-OUT DANCE FESTIVAL) as well the international meeting around tea for youths.
Aguibou is teaching at Bennington College, Vermont and the university of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA from Fall 2022
http://www.tamadia.com
Instagram: @aguibousanou
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Dr. Emmanuel Cudjoe
Emmanuel Cudjoe is a PhD Dance student and teaching assistant at Temple University. He has a BFA in Dance and Theatre and an MA in African Studies from the University of Ghana. He completed his second master’s at Erasmus Mundus International in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage in 2018. Cudjoe has many years of experience in performing, and has undertaken research and taught master classes in Togo, Romania, Norway, and France. As an academic, choreographer, and dancer, he has created works for national (Ghana) and international dance festivals. He is also a recipient of the Edrie Ferdun Emerging Scholar Award.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/irJ5jUyhXA0