From Dakar’s Medina to Bordeaux, Senegalese dancer and choreographer Khady Sarr shares how custom, breath and rootedness form her artwork — mixing sabar, up to date kinds and instructing to protect cultural heritage.
Khady Sarr is a Senegalese dancer, choreographer and instructor who has been residing in Bordeaux, France, for a number of years.
Born within the coronary heart of the long-lasting and common Medina district of Dakar, the artist has roots in three linguistic communities: the Serer, Lebou and Diola. She grew up between Dakar, Casamance and the village of Kelle.
Dance has at all times been a part of her life. Handed down as a cultural heritage, she was immersed, like all Senegalese individuals, within the vibrations of rituals and common festivals. At major faculty, she felt dance in her physique and soul for the primary time throughout a celebration organised at her faculty and led by skilled artists from the ‘Foret Sacrée’ firm. It was a revelation: she felt the sweetness, energy and freedom of dance.
When did you begin dancing?
I began to take a special curiosity in dance in school after I went to observe skilled artists rehearsing on the Blaise-Senghor cultural centre. On the time, I used to be doing athletics on the Iba Mar Diop stadium and my mom didn’t need me to do ballet as a result of she needed me to focus on my research.
Dance has at all times been part of me, it has at all times been a part of my ecosystem. I began a extra skilled dance course after I was round 16 or 17 with the grasp choreographer Joe Coly, alias Joe Bousenzy.
What does dance imply to you?
It’s respiratory, it’s life in movement, a singular area for dialogue with oneself, with residing issues and with the cosmos. Dance is a singular and common language, a code that transcends borders, pores and skin colors, linguistic and emotional obstacles.
How would you describe the dance you practise?
I practise and train a delicate type of dance, marked by authenticity and ease. By dance, I open a window onto a communion between the earth and the sky, the wind, water and fireplace. My dance borrows from the breath to supply this area for connection or reconnection.
Why train?
As an artist, I think about myself fortunate that life has positioned me the place I’m, with sensitivity as my software. I usually inform myself that I’m like a hummingbird that should do its half and contribute by dance! Receiving and giving is a standard and needed cycle to make sure continuity. Artwork is a faculty in its personal proper and its contribution, no matter cultural codes, is important and complementary to the remainder of life, enabling particular person and collective growth.
And the way do you go it on?
I’ll reply with nice care as a result of it’s a central query: for me, passing on one thing means first turning into conscious of what you’ve obtained, questioning it and analysing it as a way to then establish what’s widespread and common to go on. That mentioned, for me, passing on information additionally means having an appreciation for others, respecting them and having a way of accountability as a result of, within the case of conventional dance, we’re a part of a collective tradition, a cultural heritage handed down by our ancestors.
Would you say that dance is a means of telling tales with out phrases?
Certainly, and that is true of all African traditions; language is encoded in music and motion. Music, by drums, has at all times been used to speak and convey particular messages, and relying on the rhythms performed, the that means and goal should not the identical, and the identical is true of dance.
For instance, typically you possibly can stand subsequent to 2 griots who’re speaking to one another by the drum with out you understanding a phrase. It’s important to be initiated and obtain, perceive, after which give and go on in probably the most genuine means doable. It’s a means of preserving cultural heritage; it’s like a faculty with an important instructing custom.
Being rooted within the earth and linked to oneself appear to be the pillars of your instructing method…
That’s proper. Respiration and being rooted within the earth are the primary steps to take with the intention to join with oneself after which with the remainder.
For a number of years now, I’ve been observing our society and its evolution, which is damaging human assets. Every part is shifting too quick, and machines are changing people in lots of areas. This actuality is more and more disconnecting us from our pure rhythm and inflicting new imbalances in our our bodies, minds and the way in which we transfer.
Respiration is one of the best painkiller on the planet, a pure and easy software that naturally regulates our nervous system and feelings. The Earth is the central ingredient on which all the things rests. It represents solidity, power and vibration that welcomes music and redistributes it to us by dance. We dance barefoot in fixed contact with the Earth. So breath and Earth have grow to be the elemental foundation of my work.
You say: ‘My objective is to not make you like my dance, however that can assist you uncover your individual and to dare.’
Dance is in all of us, a present given by life. My objective is to attempt to accompany every person who life places in my path to really feel their very own dance and dare to reside it. That is additionally the that means behind my two tasks for passing on my information. The masterclass ‘Oser le cercle – Sabar et Féminité’ (Dare to kind a circle – Sabar and Femininity) and the ‘Classe Tambali’ (Tambali Class)
You possibly can’t train somebody to bounce; you possibly can solely give them the instruments to reconnect with themselves and their buried recollections in order that they’ll discover themselves and reveal themselves by dance.
In Bordeaux, you benefited from the instructing of Adama Camara and Ousmane Gallo Soumah, two nice dancers from the African ballets of Guinea, then from the assist of choreographer Vincent Harisdo throughout the creation of his solo dance piece ‘Racines’. Are you able to describe this stage of your life that fuels your ardour for sabar and dance?
To start with, I ought to level out that I practise a number of kinds of dance. I wasn’t taught sabar by anybody, besides by Senegal; it’s a legacy and a pure instructing by remark, mime and oral transmission by my setting. I used to be immersed in my Lebou tradition the place, like all youngsters and younger individuals, I went by a pure studying course of by on a regular basis life and the weather.
Later, I recognized and perfected my abilities. It was a beautiful, pure and wealthy journey with sabar, which I name social sabar (sabar of connections, danced by individuals within the neighbourhood, at weddings and baptisms), versus ballet sabar, which is meant for exhibits and performances. At the moment, I proceed to be taught by analysis with the intention to deepen my information, as there may be nonetheless a lot to be taught and share.
My basis is social sabar. Guinean ballet dances, the stage. What I realized have been Mandinka dances, first from Grasp Joe, choreographer of the Forêt Sacrée ballet in Blaise-Senghor, Senegal, who educated many Senegalese artists.
Then, after I arrived in Bordeaux, I continued studying Mandinka dances from Guinea with Mame Adama Camara and Ousmane Gallo, two nice artists who have been in African ballet firms. Later, in France after which in Mali, I danced and realized conventional dances with the unimaginable dancer Brahima Bandiougou Coulibaly.
Curious and enthusiastic about dance, I additionally took up to date dance courses with the Lullaby firm beneath choreographer Alain Gonotey. All these experiences and coaching have nourished my inventive universe and offered me with a wealthy basis for my creations. I’m a contract performer and have a number of exhibits on essential themes, which may be seen on my firm’s web site, Cie Cadi Sarr, and alone web site.
As a part of the second working residency for the present Racine, I used to be in a position to work with and profit from the experience and out of doors perspective of Beninese choreographer Vincent Harisdo in Bordeaux.
To go even additional and higher perceive the physique and its management, you additionally educated in yogalates and Pilates at Evelyne Frugier’s centre in Cannes. Why did you select this path?
It was due to my encounter with the great Salamata Diallo, who lives on the island of Réunion and teaches African dance and Pilates, that I used to be in a position to make the connection and realise the necessity to embrace the physique as an integral and indispensable software within the follow of dance.
If the physique is just not handled effectively, within the medium to long run it will be unable to accommodate dance and mean you can practise in good circumstances. Like music and singing, the physique can be a central ingredient, and yoga, yogalates and Pilates mean you can recharge and keep your physique.
On condition that trendy life has taken away a lot of the every day duties which can be essential for sustaining bodily well being (working within the fields, strolling, carrying water in your head, sitting on the ground within the night or on stools, and many others.), yoga and Pilates assist to compensate for these shortcomings and hold us in form. Evelyne provides wonderful coaching programs in Cannes.
What are your plans?
To tour Africa and the world with my exhibits and proceed my work of passing on information by varied ongoing tasks. To proceed engaged on the ‘Bibliothèques des mémoires’ (Reminiscence Libraries) challenge that my affiliation Yobalema is working in partnership with Périphérie Productions. Proceed to construct the CAADNA collective (Collectif des artistes africains et diasporas de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine). Proceed to assist and develop the social and solidarity economic system by the ladies’s group backyard ‘Djiguenou Tay’ in Senegal, in Kelle, within the commune of Yenne.
