Africa’s most celebrated dancer and choreographer, Germaine Acogny, turns 80 on 28 May. I have had the privilege of meeting the Senegalese artist, learning from her, and interviewing her as part of my ongoing research into African contemporary dance.
This is a hymn to an African woman who has inspired not only African dancers but a global community of artists to think differently about who they are, their bodies, their skin, and indeed the way they move.
In a continent plagued by legacies of colonisation, racism and patriarchy, Acogny has risen up as a female artist who has defied stereotypes around her Blackness, her femaleness and her long tall body, to become one of the world’s most revered dance makers.
