Dance
DanceAfrica 2016
Senegal: Doors of Ancient Futures
Artistic Director Abdel R. Salaam and Artistic Director Emeritus Chuck Davis
The nation’s largest festival dedicated to African dance returns for its 39th year, featuring new artistic director Abdel R. Salaam. This beloved annual tradition brings together performance, art, film, and an array of community events for an exhilarating celebration of culture from Africa and its diaspora.
This year, DanceAfrica offers a taste of the rhythm, movement, and spirit of Senegal past and present, welcoming two Dakar-based companies: Les Ballets de la Renaissance Africaine “WAATO SiiTA”, featuring the best percussionists and dancers from Senegal; Compagnie Tenane, a dynamic troupe that mixes contemporary styles and traditional Senegalese movement; BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble; Germaine Acogny; Reverend Nafisa Sharriff; and Dyane Harvey-Salaam.
This Dakar-based company comprises the best percussionists and dancers from Senegal.
This dynamic troupe mixes contemporary styles and traditional Senegalese movement.
BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble celebrates ancestral roots and the modern-day community.
Dancer and choreographer Dyane Harvey is a founding member of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre.
Germaine Acogny is considered the mother of contemporary African dance.
Reverend Nafisa Sharriff is a master teacher and choreographer of traditional West African folklore.
DanceAfrica's beloved bazaar returns, featuring more than 150 vendors from around the world, offering African, Caribbean, and African-American food, crafts, and fashion.
The Dakar-born singer and composer returns to BAM for two evenings with his longtime band, Le Super Étoile de Dakar, and a tribute to Senegalese drummer Doudou N'Diaye Rose, who passed away last year.
This cinematic companion to the annual DanceAfrica celebration features the best fiction and documentary from Ghana, Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, and beyond, including a special focus on Senegal.
BAM Visual Art presents a series of portraits capturing the faces of contemporary Africa’s emerging creative class by Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop.