Senegal: Germaine Acogny, a life for dance and choreography

Dancer, choreographer and teacher, Germaine Acogny is considered a major figure in contemporary African dance. At 78, the Senegalese keeps on dancing, creating and promoting African and contemporary dance, through training, shows…

For several decades, Germaine Acogny has contributed to the training of several dancers in Africa and the West. The Senegalese has participated in making African dance known internationally. Together with her husband Helmut Vogt, she is the founder of the « Ecole des Sables » in Senegal, which has been training dancers since 1995.

She discovered classical dance in 1962 at the Simon-Siégel School in Paris, after training as a physical education and sports teacher in Dakar, Senegal.

In 1968, in Dakar, she created her first African dance studio. Her first solo was inspired by a poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor. Needing the author’s permission, she then met the Senegalese president, who introduced her to Maurice Béjart, a Franco-Swiss dancer and choreographer, in 1977. He entrusted her with the direction of Mudra Afrique, a school created by him and the former Senegalese president. Until 1982, she ran the dance institution. In 1980, she published her book “African dance” in three languages. The Mudra Afrique school unfortunately closed in the early 80s. Therefore, she started teaching dance in Toulouse, and settled in Belgium with Maurice Béjart’s dance company where she organized international dance courses in African dance which were a huge success. In 1985, with her husband, she founded the “Ballet-theatre studio-school of the 3rd world” in Toulouse.

A lifetime of dance training and choreography

Germaine Acogny is considered the mother of contemporary African dance. She has been working for years to have dance recognised as a profession. This led her to create a dance school to train professionals in this field, which she considers the most neglected art.

In 1995, she returned to Senegal and created the Al Janti association. In 2004, she founded the « Ecole des Sables » in Toubab Dialaw, a choreography centre that trains dancers throughout the continent. For years, the school has welcomed many young Africans and even foreigners and introduce them to contemporary African dance.

As a professional dancer and choreographer, she has performed several choreographies, including the “Sahel”, a solo she created and performed herself in 1987, ” Scales of memory » in 2007, “A place at the beginning” in 2016 and directed with Mikael Serre, a German director and translator.

She has been involved in the promotion of contemporary African dance for years and has received several awards and distinctions. She is a Knight of the Order of Merit and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic and Knight of the National Order of the Lion of Senegal.

In 2014, Jeune Afrique ranked her among the 50 most influential African personalities in the world. In 2021, she received a Golden Lion for Dance at the Venice Biennale.