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West African Dance: The Un-Taught: Film Screening "Engagement Féminin Project" (based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) with Artist Discussion

Event Type
Film Screening
Sponsor
Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program
Location
1002 Lincoln Hall
Date
Mar 24, 2022   5:00 - 6:30 pm  
Speaker
Lacina Coulibaly and Sena Atsugah (see below for more information)
Cost
Free and open to the public
Registration
Registration
Contact
Anita Kaiser
E-Mail
arkaiser@illinois.edu
Phone
217-333-6221
Views
50
Originating Calendar
Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program (WGGP)

This event will include a brief film screening about Engagement Féminin, a project based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso followed by Artist discussion.

Overall visit:

A deep inquiry into the principles, philosophy, memory, and knowledge embedded in traditional West African dance forms informs the teaching and choreographic work of Lacina Coulibaly, from Burkina Faso, and Sena Atsugah, from Ghana. Both artists are concerned with the value and consideration accorded to African Dance in academic institutions, given their extensive experience teaching dance in West African, North American, and European universities. They also share more than a decade working with Engagement Féminin, a project based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that since 2008 has offered technical and creative training in dance as well as mentorship to women from across the African continent.

To find out about other events as part of this two-day visit, go to https://go.illinois.edu/Untaught

Co-sponsors for this two-day event include:

Center for Global Studies
Department of Dance
Center for African Studies
Department of Anthropology
Department of Gender and Women's Studies

More about the artists

Sena Atsugah is currently an Assistant lecturer with the Department of Dance Studies, University of Ghana on study leave and Fulbright Foreign Student (PhD) at Temple University in Philadelphia. Sena Atsugah is an enthusiastic choreographer, teacher, and a performer. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts Degrees from the University of Ghana in 2008 and 2016 respectively. Over the years, she has been engaged in numerous dance productions, performances and Workshops with students, researchers and lecturers from the University of Ghana, and foreign universities. In gaining more insight into contemporary African dance, she took part in the maiden edition of a dance workshop dubbed Engagement Feminine in 2009 through to 2016 in Burkina-Faso. Through this project, she had the opportunity of touring and performing in Bordeaux in France and Yale University in the United States. She participated in the March an annual dance workshop in Ecole de sable in Senegal and had the opportunity to be selected by Kabawil to be part of Framewalk, an intercultural student exchange program held in Ghana and Germany. She is also the founder and artistic director of Ti-fali Organisation, a performing arts NGO in Accra, Ghana.

Lacina Coulibaly was born in Burkina Faso. His professional dance career, deeply rooted in African traditional dances, later merged with European contemporary influences to create a uniquely African choreographic expression. In 1995, Lacina created the award-winning Cie Kongo Bâ Teria with Souleymane Badolo and Ousseni Sako, which toured extensively in Europe and the U.S. He has also danced and choreographed with several international dance companies (Salia ni Seydou, Faso Danse Theatre, TchéTché, Urban Bush Women), and collaborated artistically with such artists as Emily Coates, Amy Sullivan, Wendy Jehlen, Kota Yamakazi, and Seydou Coulibaly.  He also served as Associate Choreographer to the project Engagement Feminin (a training program designed to encourage female dances in Africa), initiated by the August-Bienvenue Cie, and he is currently Artistic Director of Compagnie Artistique Hakili Sigi. As an experienced educator and teacher, Lacina has taught at numerous universities and is currently a lecturer faculty at Yale University and Sarah Lawrence College.

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