- Title: Senegal's urban dancers immortalised in entrancing documentary film
- Date: 8th July 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) SENEGALESE AFRO POP DANCER, 'PI' AMADOU LAMINE SOW, SAYING: "Afro-pop dance is about roots as well as opening. When we say talk about roots it means really delving inside traditional dance which is pure to us (Senegal), and opening up to the world, to other dance styles which are everywhere, like hip hop, capoeira, salsa, other world dances which create this patchwork, this dance collage." DAKAR, SENEGAL (RECENT - JUNE 30, 2019) (REUTERS) SABAR MUSICIAN PLAYING WITH BAND DURING WEDDING UNDER A TENT SET UP IN THE STREET VARIOUS OF WOMAN DANCING SABAR DURING WEDDING GIRL DANCING SABAR DURING WEDDING GIRL JOINED BY OTHER WOMEN DANCING SABAR CHILD DANCING DURING WEDDING DAKAR, SENEGAL (RECENT - JUNE 27, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) SENEGALESE AFRO POP DANCER, 'PI' AMADOU LAMINE SOW, SAYING: "Often when you dance Sabar it is not well perceived because people say it's a dance that is a bit feminine, parents don't accept it and at the time I was a hip hop dancer, I danced just hip hop. One day I was watching a show on TV and I see this guy (referring to renowned Senegalese dancer Papa Sangone Vieira) dancing Sabar, the dance that people say is bad and even I had the same opinion about it. I see him dance Sabar and mix it with B-Boying and all that and I was fascinated, at how he did it, how it was beautiful to watch and how it was well coordinated. That's what got to me, I was fascinated by this dance, that's why I decided to become am Afro-Pop dancer."
- Embargoed: 22nd July 2019 12:27
- Keywords: Krum Afro Pop Break Dancing Sabar Hi Hop Battles traditional dance Senegal
- Location: DAKAR, SENEGAL / UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: DAKAR, SENEGAL / UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: Senegal
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Music
- Reuters ID: LVA005AMX56C9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: "The Call of Dance", or "L'Appel a la Danse" in the original French, is a celebration of dance in Senegal. It is a visually arresting documentary film on the country's vibrant dance scene and the first in a series that will look at dance across the world. It zooms in on Dakar's urban dance passing through the traditional rhythms, sounds and socio-cultural moments of Senegalese life.
It is currently touring in Europe where it was shown in France, Spain and the Netherlands and is about to hit screens in Germany. It also briefly returned to Senegal for a viewing in Dakar and Ziginchor early this year.
With the exception of two set pieces choreographed by dancer and artistic director, Diane Fardoun, who grew up in Senegal, all the dance moments in the documentary are spontaneous be they hip hop battles, initiation ceremonies or traditional Senegalese wrestlers preparing for a fight on the beach.
The artist collective behind the film which took four years to make are Fardoun, Durosoy and the cameraman Hugo Bembi. The music was composed by Julien Villa who created a near continuous electronic track out of hours of music and street sounds from the shoots.
Durosoy, whose passion for urban dancing drove his search for the intimate portraits of dancers and musicians in the film, says the documentary is not an exhaustive repertory of all the dances in Senegal. He describes it as an encounter with the people of Senegal who presented the team with their lives, their challenges and their fight.
'Pi' Amadou Lamine Sow, is a Senegalese Afro Pop dancer who features in the film dancing alongside one of his idols, Papa Sangone Vieira. He is amongst the younger street dancers in the documentary.
Sow came up from the streets Dakar where urban dance is constantly evolving. Afro Pop moves are usually danced to Afrobeat music but draws from hip hop, capoeira and an african martial art known as 'ndekett'.
Senegal's Afro Pop was first envisioned in 2014 by Dakar's Papa Sangone Vieira who drew on the quick-paced, trance-like Sabar dances performed by women in street celebrations of weddings, baptisms and other manifestations of joy to the sound of the Sabar drum beats led by traditional 'griots' - the traditional travelling poets of West Africa.
Sow, started as a hip hop dancer in 2011. He turned to Afro Pop when he saw Vieira on television mixing Sabar with B-boying and hip hop.
Vieira, a respected mentor in the urban dancing community of Dakar, died in an accident last year before the film came out.
Another dancer in the film is Pierre Claver Belleka, known as Dexter.
Dexter, a Liberian Krumper who settled in Senegal, is a professional dancer who still competes in hip hop and street dance battles around the world.
Krump is more expressive than Afro Pop and draws less from traditional sounds. It originated in the United States in the 90s and is an acronym of Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise.
Dexter says it was born out of the American ghettos and allowed young people to stay out of gangs by expressing their frustration through intense and exaggerated dance moves to music. Krump appears in music videos including Madonna's 'Hung Up' and Missy Elliott's 'Im Really Hot'.
Today Dexter dances in two companies including Art-Track and La Mer Noire, the first Senegalese street dance company. He has also featured in a video on recycling by the fashion chain H&M featuring singer MIA, an art video on orphan gangs in Dakar by British film maker Christopher Michael Tew and a creative performance video set to music by Dinah Washington and Max Richter by Hugo Bembi who shot 'L'Appel a la Danse'.
EU-funded projects like Sunu Street, led by Khadia Toure who is also featured in the documentary, set up urban dance incubators in Dakar in 2015 and 2016 which helped a number of artists like Sow and Dexter grow to the professional level.
But Sow said they only lasted for two months over two years and are not enough to keep the momentum going. Sow wants to set up his own dance academy through the dance workshop 'A free kanam' (a combination of 'Free' in English and 'Face' in Wolof) with a regular follow up and support so that talented dancers coming up don't have to struggle as hard has he did.
Both Dexter and Sow are professional dancers today. Sow is a member of the Senegal National Ballet as well as an Afro Pop street dancer and is choreographing a new piece through Afreekanam. He also teaches Sabar at Dakar's Blaise Senghor Cultural Centre. He wants to set up a dance academy.
'L'Appel a la Danse', a Screen Skin production, was directed by Diane Fardoun, shot by Hugo Bembi, researched by Pierre Durosoy with music composed by Julien Villa.
(Production: Christophe Van Der Perre, Yvonne Bell) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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