ABOUT US

presentation of the school

The founders, Germaine Acogny and Helmut Vogt, founded the Jant-Bi Association in 1994.

In 1996, they laid the foundation stone of the Ecole des Sables de Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, a small fishing village 50 km south of Dakar. After 6 years of construction, the Centre was inaugurated in June 2004. It is a real dance village with its two dance studios of 400 m2 and 280 m2, its conference room, 24 bungalows as accommodation, its own restaurant, kitchen and offices, spread over 4.5 hectares of land, whose architecture is adapted to the environment.

The International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances, commonly known as the "École des Sables" (EDS), is run by the Jant-Bi Association and has positioned itself as a crossroads for contemporary dance in Africa. Since its creation, the EDS has perpetuated the spirit of "Mudra Afrique", the first pan-African dance school in Dakar (1977 - 1982), whose artistic director was Germaine Acogny. The mission of EDS is to advance the founding vision of choreographer, dancer, teacher and cultural pioneer Germaine Acogny by creating a cultural community that offers dance training, performances, educational and community programmes for all.

"Teaching the Acogny technique is the backbone."

This research laboratory aims to be a space for meetings and exchanges, conferences and artistic residencies for dancers from Africa and all other continents. Recognised the world over, it has become a global dance village, based on the richness of dances and cultures from all over Africa, a place where dancers from all over the world come together to create new dances with new energies.

The teaching of the Acogny technique is its backbone. By creating the EDS, Germaine Acogny continued to work on creation, artistic exchange and professional development between dancers from all over the world; and all this by integrating, in the movements, in the waves of the black body, the steps, not precisely the most typical, but the most complementary to other dances.

At Toubab Dialaw, the exchange of knowledge is reciprocal. Through its educational and artistic vocation, and its commitment to intercultural and multidisciplinary dialogue, the school contributes to the human, social and economic development of different areas, from the village of Toubab Dialaw to the rest of Africa.

Between 2011 and 2015, Patrick Acogny, who holds a doctorate in performing arts with a major in dance from the University of Paris 8, became co-artistic director with Germaine Acogny, taking on the role of artistic director from 2015 to 2020. He is contributing to new visions, bringing his research and methods to bear on the deconstruction of traditional African dance. He has also contributed to the repertoire of the company Jant - Bi (men) with the creation of "Waxtaan" and Jant-Bi Jiggen (women) with "Afro-Dites", two internationally acclaimed creations. He has trained several generations of dancers and pioneered the three-year training format (3 months in a year) for African dancers.

In 2019, École des Sables makes history by collaborating with the Pina Bausch Foundation to give birth to 2 wonderful projects: a duet with Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo (former soloist of the Pina Bausch company) and the transmission of the Rite of Spring by Pina Bausch to a group of 38 dancers from the African continent, many of whom trained at Ecole des Sables.

In 2020, the role of artistic director and guardian of Ecole des Sables was entrusted to two of its most trusted former students, who also hold the Acogny technique diploma: Alesandra Seutin and Wesley Ruzibiza, to work alongside Paul Sagne, who has worked and developed within Ecole des Sables for the last 15 years and who has now been appointed administrative director.