Serge Aimé Coulibaly

Athi-Patra Ruga

Serge Aimé Coulibaly was born in 1972 in Bobo-Dioulasso, the economic capital of Burkina Faso. In 1993, with no prior training, he joined the company Feeren, directed by Amadou Bourou, who gave him a part in a show only two months after his arrival. A gifted dancer, he performed in many shows before starting to work on his own choreographies. In 1998, he designed the choreography for the opening ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations. He moved to Europe in 2001, where his path crossed Nathalie Cornille’s in Lille and Claude Brumachon’s in Nantes, before he joined les ballets C. de la B. in Belgium, giving remarkable performances in Alain Platel’s Wolf and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Tempus Fugit. In 2002, he founded the company Faso Danse Théâtre, and created his first solo, Minimini. Since then, he has created nine other shows, including A Benguer (2006), ‘Solitude d’un Homme Intègre’ (2007), and ‘Nuit blanche à Ouagadougou’ ( 2014) and ‘Kalakuta Republik’ (2016). With their critical look at modern Africa, the West, and their shared history, Serge Aimé Coulibaly’s undoubtedly political shows have sometimes been called visionary; they question in real time the hopes of an African youth he accompanies in all its endeavours, including its revolutions.

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