{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='73-year-old iconic dancer still teaching and performing' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d49cd8eafeecae1f40b8' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d49cd8eafeecae1f40b8' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\n73-year-old iconic dancer still teaching and performing\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eLEADINGermaine Acogny is known internationally for fusing West African and modern dance. The 73-year-old dancer has been sharing her technique with young artists at L'Ecole des Sables, a school in a remote fishing village in Senegal. Now...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eLEADINGermaine Acogny is known internationally for fusing West African and modern dance. The 73-year-old dancer has been sharing her technique with young artists at L'Ecole des Sables, a school in a remote fishing village in Senegal. Now she is leaving to tour the United States and Europe.STORYLINEBare foot and wearing loose clothing, Germaine Acogny climbs onto a platform at her open air rehearsal space.As the music starts she stamps her feet to the beat and slowly twists and turns her hips, before bursting into leaps and jumps and the music quickens.Acogny is best known for fusing West African and modern dance. She has been sharing her decades-old technique with young artists from across the continent at Ecole des Sables, French for School of Sands, in a remote fishing village in Senegal. \"My greatest influence has been the patrimonial, traditional dances of my country. That is what guided me and that is my influence. That is my roots and that is what is at my base. Because if you don't know where you come from, you will not go far,\" she explains.At 73, Acogny still commands attention with a movement as simple as a turn of the wrist. Dakar's French Institute have dedicated their Kaay Fecc festival, now in its ninth year, to her this year. The festival ran May 19-21 2017. \"She knew how to position Senegal as a place where dance is made on a certain scale, it is a pride for us. We go out of Senegal and we hear about Germaine Acogny. We speak to companies which she founded, of the 'Ecole des Sables'. Thus it is a pride,\" says festival director Gacirah Diagne.Born in Benin, she was raised in Senegal. She divorced her husband at 23 after refusing his request for a second wife. To feed her two children, she opened a dance studio for young girls. From there, Senegal's then-President Leopold Sedar Senghor and French-born choreographer Maurice Bejart appointed her to direct the Mudra Afrique, a school opened in 1977 to train contemporary dancers. When it closed she moved to Europe, where she met her husband, Helmut Vogt. They returned to Senegal to eventually found Ecole des Sables, whose rural isolation complimented Acogny's work: rooted in nature, using the baobab (a fruit), sun and moon as guides. She also founded a dance company, Jant-Bi, and has won a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award. Students from across Africa come for months at a time to explore their lives as artists, a rarity on a continent where dance is more tradition than profession.They learn the Acogny technique, share their own traditional dances and are taught contemporary dance by visiting international artists. The hope is they return home to develop their art while fostering local support. The school, however, is threatened by a funding loss. And now Acogny is leaving it in the hands of her son Patrick as she prepares for a tour of the United States and Europe. Kadidja Tiemanta, is a 25-year-old from Mali, who plans to return to his country and teach others Acogny's technique:\"Germaine for me is an icon, she is a big personality. Because what she was able to build here with her husband, it is really big, it is unique here in Africa, that there is this space for the African dancers,\" he says.During Acogy's upcoming tour she will perform \"Mon Elue Noire,\" or \"My Elected Black Maiden,\" choreographed by France's Ballet du Nord director Olivier Dubois as part of a series of works he plans to make for various artists set to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.The dark and powerful dance touches on colonialism and embraces Acogny's life. \"We were having one day dinner and I said 'Germaine you are 70 years old, would you like to be my Black Elected Maiden?' And she told me 'This chance I will never let go I will take it. I've got to say a big yes!' There were tears in our eyes. And I said 'OK let's go'. So we started like this together,\" says Dubois, explaining the moment they agreed to work together.As she performs, surrounded by multiple shadow images of herself, she moves more like a woman in her twenties than her seventies.Looking to the future and reflecting on her legacy she says:\"I do not know what will stay or if I will be forgotten. I will have passed like a flash of lightning. But I will have left my technique and a school.\"Toubab Dialaw, Senegal - 23 May 20171. Various of Germaine Acogny rehearsing at school's theatre2. SOUNDBITE (French), Germaine Acogny, African dancer\"My greatest influence has been the patrimonial, traditional dances of my country. That is what guided me and that is my influence. That is my roots and that is what is at my base. Because if you don't know where you come from, you will not go far.\"Dakar, Senegal - 19 May 20173. Mid of poster for Kaay Fecc Festival of Dance4. Wide of exterior of Kaay Fecc Festival of Dance 5. SOUNDBITE (French) Gacirah Diagne, Kaay Fecc Festival Director\"She knew how to position Senegal as a place where dance is made on a certain scale, it is a pride for us. We go out of Senegal and we hear about Germaine Acogny. We speak to companies which she founded, of the 'Ecole des Sables'. Thus it is a pride.\"Toubab Dialaw, Senegal - 23 May 20176. Various of dance class at Ecole des Sables (School of Sands), Acogny's School7. Various of Patrick Acogny, Acogny's son and director of Ecole des Sables, in his office 8. SOUNDBITE (French) Patrick Acogny, Acogny's son and Director of Ecole des Sables\"The technique Acogny which returns to this space is unique. It is necessary to know that Germaine Acogny created the only technique of codified African dance, there is no other one. Thus people who really want to practice this technique well have to come to the Ecole des Sables.\"9. Pull focus on tree outside Ecole des Sables10. Various of dancers training inside Ecole des Sables11. SOUNDBITE (French) Kadidja Tiemanta, student from Mali\"Germaine for me is an icon, she is a big personality. Because what she was able to build here with her husband, it is really big, it is unique here in Africa, that there is this space for African dancers.\" 12. Various of Egyptian student Mohamed Y. Shika at school and with other students13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohamed Y. Shika, student from Egypt\"Mama Germaine told me about the school, that it is a dance school for Afro-traditional dances and African contemporary dance. But I'd never heard about a school like this in Senegal and I need to come. She said 'we have never had any Egyptians before'. I told her 'I'm going to be the first one'.\"14. Various of Acogny rehearsing with choreographer Olivier Dubois15. SOUNDBITE (English) Olivier Dubois, Choreographer and Director, Ballet du Nord\"We were having one day dinner and I said 'Germaine you are 70 years old, would you like to be my Black Elected Maiden ?' And she told me 'This chance I will never let go I will take it. I've got to say a big yes !' There were tears in our eyes. And I said 'OK let's go'. So we started like this together.\"16. Various of Acogny's performance at the Ecole des Sables theatre 17. Mid of standing ovation for Acogny and Dubois18. SOUNDBITE (French) Germaine Acogny, African dancer\"I do not know what will stay or if I will be forgotten. I will have passed like a flash of lightning. But I will have left my technique and a school. People will remember me through exactly all the 'sablists' to whom I gave the chance to make their living through their art.\"19. Mid of Acogny and her husband watching the students' performance20. 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