One stage, nine performers. A collective choreographic creation, SIGUIFIN features the work of three young choreographers from West Africa, under the artistic direction of Amala Dianor – Alioune Diagne (Sénégal), Naomi Fall (Mali) and Ladji Koné (Burkina Faso).

SIGUIFIN by Compagnie Amala Dianor is a Big Pulse Dance Alliance Commission, coproduced by Julidans (Netherlands), New Baltic Dance (Lithuania), Dublin Dance Festival (lreland), Tanz im August/HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Germany), Dance Umbrella (UK), CODA Oslo International Dance Festival (Norway), ONE Dance Week (Bulgaria) and presented by Zodiak – Side Step Festival (Finland), International Dance Festival TANEC PRAHA (Czech Republic), Torinodanza Festival (ltaly), co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

SIGUIFIN:

“Siguifin means “magical monster” in the Bambara language. This new work is the result of a collective choreographic process inspired by the game of Exquisite cadaver (a game involving the drawing of parts of the body, or combining words) to construct a magical, multi-faceted being.

Research led by Naomi Fall on the dancers’ individualities and questions which will develop from this meeting of young people from the three countries, and will then allow Ladji Koné to position the dancers and their personalities against each other through a creative process based on mutual listening and group cohesiveness. Then Alioune Diagne will explore the dancers’ cultures and these 3 neighboring countries, since they are not at all similar.

The texture of each creator’s dancing will be the bridge between all these parts of the work. Based on the mixing of the movement vocabularies, which will have been developed in the creation residencies, I will then create a through line, a canvas which connects yet also respects the three choreographic proposals, building that unique, magical being. I will also be interested in the young artists, channeling this question: what is their present, and what future will they build together in dialogue with the world?

A cooperative project for young dancers 

The idea of an ENCOUNTER is more than ever an essential component of my work in this project, which includes three choreographers from West Africa: Alioune Diagne who is based in Saint Louis in Sénégal; Naomi Fall, from the Blonba Cultural Center in Bamako, Mali; and Ladji Koné who is an artist in residence at the Termitière, the CDC of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. They are invited to co-create a work for 9 young African dancers. The dancers were selected in each country by the 3 choreographers, all have a laudable strength and and an overwhelming drive to express themselves — which seem vital, necessary for the stage work. I am hoping to offer the audience the possibility of vibrating, feeling along with the dancers and their energy: all of them live their dance quite fiercely. 

Siguifin is first of all a collective choreographic creation which will introduce a new generation of artists, choreographers and dancers, players in a new, prolific artistic landscape, set in West Africa. With this project I intend to promote the talents and diversity of these young dancers from Mali, Burkina Faso and Sénégal.  

Siguifin is also a step toward my intent to offer opportunities to these young talented dancers and choreographers to come to West Africa for the creation residencies and the premiere, then later to come to France – and I hope elsewhere in Europe and around the world. Traveling in order to dance, crossing borders to experience the stages of this deliberately plural creative process, then the chance to encounter different audiences – all of these are important milestones in their artistic journeys as dancers. Experiencing this reinforces their vocations, and helps to drive forward their careers.”

– Amala Dianor