Council on African Studies is pleased to welcome Lila Ann Dodge (MA candidate, African Studies) for a talk entitled:
Professionally oriented contemporary dance training in Burkina Faso: social and somatic foundations for a transnational career
A surge of choreographic work from the African continent has entered the global circuit of innovative performance in the last thirty years. Recent training initiatives in Burkina Faso feed into a transnational circuit of professional contemporary dance enabled crucially by the enduring patterns of colonial rapports. Simultaneously, they affirm a locally grounded choreographic culture with its own standards for success. The research presented in this talk investigates the role of the embodied content of dance training in Burkina Faso in shaping both the aesthetic and social dimensions of a career path in contemporary dance.