UMD TDPS Dance faculty Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig in Senegal

This summer, dance faculty Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig traveled to Senegal to meet with dancer, choreographer, and educator Germaine Acogny and her dance school, École des Sables (School of the Sands) in Toubab Dialaw outside of Dakar.

This summer, UMD TDPS Dance faculty Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, of PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER, traveled to Senegal to meet with dancer, choreographer, and educator Germaine Acogny and her dance school, École des Sables (School of the Sands) in Toubab Dialaw outside the capital city of Dakar. Check out their write-up of their experience there:

 

Our week in Senegal was a profound experience - culturally, artistically and spiritually. Meeting the legendary dancer, choreographer and educator Germaine Acogny (ranked in 2014 among the "50 most influential African personalities in the world" by the magazine Jeune Afrique), and seeing her perform, was a long-held dream come true. She and her husband, Helmut Vogt, have dedicated their lives to creating and maintaining the iconic École des Sables (School of the Sands) in Toubab Dialaw, a fishing village one hour south of the capital, Dakar. It is a thriving contemporary arts center with deep roots in the African traditions and the human connection to the earth and the ancestors. The twenty emerging dance artists of this particular workshop (the most important of the school's annual lineup) came from 14 different countries, where many of them had endured horrific experiences in war-torn areas. Clearly inspired and invigorated by being afforded the opportunity to participate in this three year/three-months-per year training, which includes daily classes in contemporary African dance, choreography and performance, as well as discussions about cutting edge international dance research, this was a vibrant, deeply invested group of next-generation artists hungry for new information and the opportunity to discover their own voices and to collaborate, perform and integrate their own traditions and backgrounds with current influences.

 

The urgency with which they invited our feedback to the work they had been creating, and the immediacy with which they responded to our presence and our words, were meaningful and rewarding. As evidenced by the continued online contacts since our departure, our short time together served to establish important relationships between us. Moreover, we were able to connect some of them to Michael Blanco, curator for DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State (produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music), who will be traveling to several African countries soon and wants to meet them.

 

In addition to seeing these students' creations at the school, we were able to travel to St. Louis (a city five hours to the north) for the "Duo Solo" festival, where we were invited by the entrepreneurial director to see works by up-and-coming Senegalese choreographers. The rich offerings gave us an excellent, au courant overview of the country's dance artistry.

The vision, passion and tenacity we witnessed in everyone from "Mama Germaine" and "Papa Helmut", to Germaine's son and current director of École des Sables, Patrick Acogny (a wonderful dancer, choreographer and educator in his own right), to the students and their individual struggles in their home countries, to the artists and presenters at the festival in St. Louis, was truly inspiring. These experiences renewed our own creative spirits, underscoring the deep common roots that connect dance artists all over the world, across all cultures and traditions.

 

We look forward to continuing these threads in the near future, starting with inviting Germaine and Patrick to visit our school and establishing an exchange program between these young African artists and our students.

 

Our thanks to Martin Wollesen, director of The Clarice, for inviting us to join him, and to the New York based Multi-Arts Projects and Productions' African Consortium for making the trip possible.

 

 

Patrik Widrig, Germaine Acogny, Martin Wollesen (Executive Director of The Clarice), and Sara Pearson

Sara, Patrik, Germaine Acogny, Martin Wollesen, and Helmut Vogt (husband of Acogny and co-manager of École des Sables)

Patrik and Sara after watching a street performance

Sara at a street performance

Sara and Patrik with some of the 20 students from 14 African countries at École des Sables