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Internationally renowned Senegalese-French choreographer Germaine Acogny returns to South Africa to show her latest creation, Songook Yaakaar (Facing up to Hope), in collaboration with her “artistic family” Pierre Doussaint, Fabrice Bouillon, Bernard Mounier and Fred Koenig.

 In this solo piece, the mother of African dance speaks again with her body, her gestures, her dance – but not only this. She also talks and she knows talking as well, and laughing and shouting and whispering. She makes you meet her Africa, its leaders, its people, the life today. She shows that there is hope in spite of disasters and ignorance.

Germaine Acogny says: “I am quite an ordinary dancer of the 21st century: an African of the Yoruba ethnic group, with Senegalese and French nationality. Mixed race sticks to my skin without altering its color, and this mix of ingredients makes me just want to dance, to dance beyond the words and weariness. More than drawing images, I want to ‘face up to hope’ of my various Africas and proclaim it with insight and conviction.”

As part of the Dance Umbrella, Germaine Acogny will perform in Songook Yaakaar (Facing up to Hope) on Wednesday 11 & Thursday 12 September at 19h30 at the Market Theatre and will take part to a face to face interview after her performance at the Market Theatre on Thursday 12 September. She will also be leading a master class on Friday 13 September at 10.00am at Moving Into Dance.

Germaine Acogny will be back in November, in Cape Town, as one of the facilitators of the third edition of Crossings – International Artistic Workshop.

Venue and booking information
Market Theatre, 56 Margaret Mcingana Street, Newtown – safe parking
Bookings at Computicket on www.computicket.co.za or 011 492 2033

For more information about the Dance Umbrella’s programme
visit www.danceumbrella.co.za

Presented at the Dance Umbrella 2013 in partnership with the French Institute of South Africa.

www.ifas.org.za | www.facebook.com/institutfrancaisculture

About Germaine Acogny
Senegalese and French, Germaine Acogny has evolved her own technique of Modern African Dance and is considered worldwide as the ‘mother of Contemporary African Dance’.

From 1977 to 1982, she was the Artistic Director of Mudra Afrique, created by Maurice Béjart and the senegalese President L.S. Senghor in Dakar.

She dances, choreographs and teaches all over the world and has become a powerful ambassador of African Dance and Culture.

In 1997, Germaine Acogny was appointed Artistic Director of the dance section of Afrique en Creation in Paris.

With her husband Helmut Vogt, she created the Ecole des Sables, the International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances. Located in Senegal, the Ecole des Sables is a place for training and exchange between African dancers and dancers from all over the world, an important meeting and education place for Contemporary African Dance and choreography.

Germaine Acogny has choreographed many pieces, for her Company JANT-BI, which tours successfully around the world, and she creates and performs her own solos. Her last creation, the solo « Songook Yaakaar » made Premiere at the Biennale de la danse in
Lyon in September 2010.

Germaine Acogny is ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre du Merite’, ‘Officier et Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres’, ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur’ of the Republic of France. She is also ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Lion’ and ‘Officier et Commandeur des Arts et Lettres” of the Republic of Senegal.

In 1999, Germaine Acogny is decorated as “Pioneer Woman” by the Senegalese Ministry of the Family and the National Solidarity.

In 2007, she received, jointly with the Japanese KotaYamazaki a BESSIE Award in New York for the choreography of their choreography ‘Fagaala’.

www.jantbi.org

About the Dance Umbrella 2013
Celebrating 25 years of dancing all over Johannesburg!

The first Dance Umbrella platform was presented 25 years ago in February 1988. How much we have danced since then… This year, Dance Forum in partnership with the Johannesburg Arts Alive International Festival once again offers you the opportunity to enjoy exciting, new and commissioned works from both local and international choreographers. Dance Umbrella 2013 includes five international companies, 15 new works from South African choreographers along with the Stepping Stones programme which features 30 choreographers.

For more information about this year’s Dance Umbrella’s programme, click here.

Source: www.ifas.org.za

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