Germaine Acogny

Germaine Acogny, regarded as the ‘mother of contemporary African dance’, is an internationally renowned Franco-Senegalese dancer, choreographer and teacher

Trained in Paris between 1962 and 1965, she founded her first dance studio in Dakar in 1968. Drawing on the legacy of traditional dances passed down by her grandmother, a Yoruba priestess, and on her studies of classical and modern Western dance, she developed her own technique – a unique synthesis of African traditions and modern choreography.

Her career is inextricably linked to leading figures and pioneering projects. Between 1977 and 1982, she directed MUDRA AFRIQUE in Dakar, founded by Maurice Béjart and the president-poet Léopold Sédar Senghor. In 1980, she published Danse Africaine, which appeared in three languages.

Together with her husband Helmut Vogt, she founded the Studio-École-Ballet-Théâtre du 3e Monde in Toulouse in 1985, followed in 2004 by the École des Sables in Senegal – the International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dance, which has become a global benchmark for the training of dancers and choreographers from the continent.

A tireless ambassador for African dance and culture, Germaine Acogny headed the Danse d’Afrique en Création section in Paris from 1997 to 2000 and was invited as a visiting artist at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) in 2005. Since 1998, she has regularly created solos and, since 2004, works for her company JANT-BI, which have been performed on stages around the world.