A short video of Shifting Traces: Dakar, Senegal:

The Shifting Traces: Contemporary Dance In and Outside of Africa blog is about shifting center, physically and technologically. It is aligned with the contemporary dance work from Africa touring the globe and asking audiences worldwide to rethink their assumptions about Africa. I am interested in how cyber technology and web-based communities can be generative spaces for artistic exchange and innovation. The traces we are leaving here on video will be resources for global audiences, presenters, choreographers, dancers, as well as people who know very little about dance, and the very dancers who are very involved in the cotemporary dance movement and featured in the videos. This spring in my course at The Ohio State University my students will test out some global collaborations with dancers based in Senegal, Kenya, and Burkina Faso. We will utilize the Internet and the technology means we have access to, in order to create dialogue and test out artistic exchange and collaboration via cyberspace.

We will also have an upcoming cyber conference where several of the choreographers featured on this blog will log in from their specific locale to give a lecture, a comp class, a technique class, an informal performance, a short interview that will be accessible globally. This upcoming event date is till to be determined.

Respectfully Submitted by: Esther Baker-Tarpaga
www.btdanceproject.com

Video from Ateliers Aex Corps in Dakar, Senegal. This video highlights interviews with choreographers and workshop director Andreya Ouamba in addition to footage with dancer participants in the workshop. This is the fourth edition of Ateliers Aex Corps.

Coming soon is a video of dancers interviews/footage and what types of Internet communication many of the dancers are using.

Written Quote from Andreya Ouamba Atelier Aex Corps Goals:

“Atelier Aex Corps is a project which aims at strengthening the training of the dancer by inviting him to open his mind at new ways of dance expressions. This initiative, which is not new for certain artistic circles in Senegal (Toubab dialaw with l’Ecole des sables), is on the other hand new for the dance community of the city of Dakar. Artists who want to experiment, dancers who have questions such as: understanding how to move their body for a better use, and how to place their body into the space or how their moves and use of the space could be understood…

This project is a journey which is going to take place over three years. A group of 10 dancers is selected to follow each workshop. The duration of the program as well as the restricted numbers of participants will allow a good follow up of the evolution of the dancers. The previous dancers will be first and foremost invited to participate to the following sessions. At the end of every session, the participants are encouraged
to present a personal project. This project can be the beginning of a choreographic construction, a works in progress or an accomplished piece.”