nimba dance
roots & revolution
Dance and music is an integral part of many West African cultures, and play a particularly poignant role in Guinea. Independence-era leader Sekou Toure championed the "cultural revolution" in Guinea, by which Guineans were to define themselves as a nation through their arts and cultural production. Les Ballets Africains and Ballets Djoliba, Guinea's national dance companies, thus became stewards of old and ethnically varied dance and rhythmic traditions reconfigured for the new face of Guinea.
As it becomes increasingly difficult for talented new artists and performers to make a living both in Africa and abroad, Guinea dance is losing vital connections to its history and the precious legacies therein. At Nimba, we envision a place where the old traditions can be kept alive while training new generations of Guinean teachers, and international dancers, with an eye towards cultural preservation and economic improvement on the ground in Guinea.
As it becomes increasingly difficult for talented new artists and performers to make a living both in Africa and abroad, Guinea dance is losing vital connections to its history and the precious legacies therein. At Nimba, we envision a place where the old traditions can be kept alive while training new generations of Guinean teachers, and international dancers, with an eye towards cultural preservation and economic improvement on the ground in Guinea.
youssouf koumbassa loves to dance. watch:
lucky for us, he also loves to teach.
And after 25 years of teaching abroad, he wants to return his talents and experience back to the source. With Nimba, Youssouf can protect the pedagogy, choreography, and his invaluable cultural heritage and establish a center, at home in Guinea, for dance education. Many of Africa's finest dancers and most capable teachers are often forced to leave their home countries to find work, and while most express their feelings of honor and privilege at sharing their culture & knowledge with the world, the unfairness of this "brain drain" is a perpetual issue for the global African dance community. The Nimba Center for Art and Sustainable Energy addresses this inequity by providing training and performance opportunities for Africans and internationals, thereby sustaining the old traditions while expanding horizons for new generations of dancers and musicians.
