Artistic Director Valerie Green participated in the 9th Edition of the “In Out Festival” in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, Africa.
The places I travel with my dance making and teaching are often off the beaten path. And so it continued to be even more so an adventure to travel to West Africa and the lovely country of Burkina Faso immediately following a coup, in the same week. While safety was a concern, I am happy to report that staying within close proximity to the festival headquarters the tour felt very safe.
I worked with 8 local dancers and 6 world class musicians. Offering my signature class Dance Your Frame, alongside creating a new dance work to be presented for the festival finale. Our creation and performance hub was the French Institute of Bobo-Dioulasso, we worked on a giant outdoor theater daily. Modern/Contemporary dance styles are new for the dancers. It was a very different movement experience for all and quite challenging for them to say the least. But somehow each day provided more growth and understanding as well as curiosity to new ways of moving, as well as how to think about dance and create it from our personal life experiences.
For the new creation, topics explored were how the dancers saw themselves, their emotions, what their wish for Burkina Faso after the coup is, what they wanted to bring into the world. Words that came up were independence, struggle, hope, anger, unity, freedom, connection, and liberty. But what I experienced among the process that keep rising to the top was the desire for connection and unity. The dance titled “L’Apres Le Monde” also included the use of African textiles, and some cultural dance influences. The drummers accompanying my residency and performance were phenomenal world class musicians, and the most exciting part of this residency. It is rare or moreover never occurring that I have had 6 percussionists to accompany me on a daily basis. I felt so this to be the largest gift of the experience.
The greatest challenge to the process of working together was language. Burkina Faso being a former French colony led to the population speaking French outside of their many local dialects. My French was extremely limited, and there was no translator. Somehow with a little help from some of the musicians who spoke a tiny bit, google translate, and my few words of French, we managed!
In the end all the dancers each of different ages and levels to begin to grow in their own ways. And we all were very proud to present the fruits of our labor for the festival finale. The offering was a great success and had the whole audience up and dancing in the end!
I also visited the American Corner of Bobo-Dioulasso operated by the American Embassy, who supported my participation in the festival. There were about 20 university students present to participate in a movement workshop. I also shared a video clip of VG/DE’s work Utopia. We then broke out in small groups to talk about what we saw in the dance. Allowing the locals an opportunity to practice speaking English. We wrapped it up with a group discussion with each group sharing from their conversations.
The festival also had guests from other countries performing including Spain, Slovenia, Nigeria, Togo, and Mali. As well as a conference attended by other international dance leaders. We all joined daily for meals, visiting cultural centers, viewing the performances and getting in some African Dance in the Village.
The experience was very meaningful and challenging for me in many ways, so I am not sure how to wrap up this latest experience except to say my heart and soul felt full as I started my journey home.