AIR DE TEMPS
AIR DE TEMPS speaks of an urgent need to express oneself, to delve into lost dreams, to confront one’s demons and regurgitate one’s resentment – to have a voice. It’s a powerful process for shedding the cloak of failure passed down from generation to generation.
ABOUT
Based at the Ecole des Sables, Jant-Bi II’s mission is the professional development of dancers through training and support, the creation of an original choreographic repertoire, and above all the dissemination of shows created in Senegal.
Its ambition is to promote contemporary African dance and make it accessible to all.
Locally, the company contributes to development and social cohesion.
The Jant Bi II company also serves as a reservoir and base for the historic Jant-Bi-Germaine Acogny company.
Since 2021, Jant- Bi II has been directed in tandem by Alesandra Seutin and Wesley Ruzibiza, and has created “Air de temps”, a manifesto show.
The new artistic direction is convinced that we need to create together to go beyond our differences.
Drawing on the legacy of its founder Germaine Acogny, the company is part of a mixed-race world where cultures intersect, diverge, clash and evolve to produce a consensual response.
The poetics of the aesthetics of the black body and its entire history are at the heart of our work with the Germaine Acogny Technique.
Our teaching methods are based on the back-and-forth between artistic research, thought workshops, exploration of the unknown and the spiritual, and the transmission of our ancestral cultures from the African continent to contemporary creation, giving birth to live performance.
ABOUT
Based at the Ecole des Sables, Jant-Bi II’s mission is the professional development of dancers through training and support, the creation of an original choreographic repertoire, and above all the dissemination of shows created in Senegal.
Its ambition is to promote contemporary African dance and make it accessible to all.
Locally, the company contributes to development and social cohesion.
The Jant Bi II company also serves as a reservoir and base for the historic Jant-Bi-Germaine Acogny company.
Since 2021, Jant- Bi II has been directed in tandem by Alesandra Seutin and Wesley Ruzibiza, and has created “Air de temps”, a manifesto show.
The new artistic direction is convinced that we need to create together to go beyond our differences.
Drawing on the legacy of its founder Germaine Acogny, the company is part of a mixed-race world where cultures intersect, diverge, clash and evolve to produce a consensual response.
The poetics of the aesthetics of the black body and its entire history are at the heart of our work with the Germaine Acogny Technique.
Our teaching methods are based on the back-and-forth between artistic research, thought workshops, exploration of the unknown and the spiritual, and the transmission of our ancestral cultures from the African continent to contemporary creation, giving birth to live performance.
PERFORMANCE DATES
Save the dates of upcoming performances of AIR DE TEMPS by Compagnie JANT-BI II.
TEAM
Assistant to the choreographer: Kezia Jonah
Composition and Music: Randolph Matthews, Tarang Cissokho and Angelo Moustapha
Lighting design: Jean-Pierre Nepost and Ralf Nonn
Outside eye support: Dorcy Rugamba and Saky Tchebe Bertrand
Producer: Hervé-Marie Breuil
Dancers (7 on stage): Amadou Diop, Amy Cole Seck, Astou Diop, Birame Faye, Cheick Ibrahim Thiam, Dieynaba Ndoye, El hadji Mbaye Faye, Fallou Sene, Fatou Niang, Gana Thioune, Latif Arafan Wa-hab Diedhiou and Ousmane Cissé Diané.
Alesandra Seutin
co-artistic director of Compagnie Jant-Bi II
Alesandra Seutin is the new co-artistic director of Ecole des Sables.
An international performer, choreographer and teacher, Alesandra Seutin (the daughter of a South African and Belgian couple) was born in Harare, Zimbabwe.
She grew up in Brussels and now lives between London and Brussels. She has studied dance all over the world, in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States. She has degrees in dance theatre from Trinity Laban Conservatoire and in choreography and performance from Middlesex University in London. She also trained at the École des Sables in Senegal, where she was a pupil of Germaine Acogny, who passed on her technique to her.
Alesandra Seutin is now an ambassador for the Germaine Acogny technique, which she teaches at the École des Sables and throughout the world.
Wesley Ruzibiza is the new co-artistic director of Ecole des Sables. A major dancer and choreographer in Rwanda, he is an associate professor at the CPARC research centres in Bordeaux, at the National University of Rwanda and at the Muda Africa School of Dance in Tanzania, as well as at various dance training and professionalization centres. He discovered contemporary dance and theatre with Arts Azimuts at the University of Rwanda’s Centre Universitaire des Arts, where he was head of the dance department for 8 years in 2002.
He is director of the Kompagnie AMIZERO and of the EANT Festival in Kigali. In 2022, he triumphed at the Théâtre Paris Villette with his creation East African Bolero.
A graduate of Germaine Acogny’s Ecole des sables in Senegal, in traditional and contemporary African dance, with a diploma and expertise in finance and project management.
Wesley Ruzibiza
co-artistic director of Compagnie Jant-Bi II
Presentation of the performance Air de Temps
French Institute of Senegal in Dakar
REVIEW
"The show, which lasts for almost an hour and a half, begins in a skilfully bluish light. The dancers, all dressed in boubou, stretch out their haughty silhouettes with their backs to the audience, men and women alike, to a musically fascinating start. The sacred and immobile Africa rises up, almost like a Maïsaï attitude with a freeze frame. The final impression of this living arts show, teeming with creativity, is the group of ten or so male and female dancers, each very different from the next in their sensitive interpretation, flowing into their simple, beautiful and very contemporary costumes (eco design clothes). The eye remains riveted on this YOUNG Africa, standing up AND alive, singular and inclusive, demanding respect."
Matytima
REGISTRATION FOR ACCREDITED PRESS
Sponsors & Partners
Broadcast contact
Hervé-MarieBreuil
diffusion@ecoledessables.org
diffusion@ecoledessables.org
WhatsApp : +221 76 199 34 68
Telephone EDS : +221 33 836 23 88
