Siguifin means “magical monster” in the Bambara language. This new work is the result of a collective choreographic process inspired by the game of Exquisite cadaver (a game involving the drawing of parts of the body, or combining words) to construct a magical, multi-faceted being.

Research led by Naomi Fall on the dancers’ individualities and questions which will develop from this meeting of young people from the three countries, and will then allow Ladji Koné to position the dancers and their personalities against each other through a creative process based on mutual listening and group cohesiveness. Then Alioune Diagne will explore the dancers’ cultures and these 3 neighbouring countries since they are not at all similar.

The texture of each creator’s dancing will be the bridge between all these parts of the work. Based on the mixing of the movement vocabularies, which will have been developed in the creation residencies, I will then create a through-line, a canvas that connects yet also respects the three choreographic proposals, building that unique, magical being. I will also be interested in the young artists, channelling this question: what is their present, and what future will they build together in dialogue with the world?

One stage, nine performers. A collective choreographic creation, SIGUIFIN features the work of three young choreographers from West Africa, under the artistic direction of Amala Dianor – Alioune Diagne (Sénégal), Naomi Fall (Mali) and Ladji Koné (Burkina Faso).
SIGUIFIN by Compagnie Amala Dianor is a Big Pulse Dance Alliance Commission, coproduced by Julidans (Netherlands), New Baltic Dance (Lithuania), Dublin Dance Festival (lreland), Tanz im August/HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Germany), Dance Umbrella (UK), CODA Oslo International Dance Festival (Norway), ONE Dance Week (Bulgaria) and presented by Zodiak – Side Step Festival (Finland),International Dance Festival TANEC PRAHA (Czech Republic), Torinodanza Festival (ltaly), co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

After starting out as a hip hop dancer, Amala Dianor entered the prestigious CNDC school in Angers (in the class of 2002). He then performed for 10 years as a dancer with a number of choreographers in very different worlds, including hip hop, neo-classical, contemporary and Afro-contemporary. In 2012, he founded his own company, and his dance style and vocabulary were immediately identifiable: sliding from one technique to another with ease and virtuosity, with a hybrid approach to shape, and a poetic approach to the issue of ‘otherness’. Since he created his first solo Man Rec in 2014, he has worked in close collaboration with the electro-soul composer Awir Léon, who has written the original music for his pieces. He also often collaborates with other choreographic artists, composers, writers and plasticians.

In 2019, he created his first major work for nine dancers to whom he taught his special blend of styles and techniques; the work was called The Falling Stardust and is currently touring. In 2020, he prepared at Maison de la Danse in Lyon, the trio Point Zéro, which he will perform with his dancer/ choreographer friends Johanna Faye and Mathias Rassin. During the period of theatre closing, he co-writes dance short-movies with the visual artist Grégoire Korganow. He has also committed to training pre-professional dancers in France and then in Western Africa with his project Siguifin, a collective creation for nine dancers and three countries, with the choreographers Ladji Koné, Alioune Diagne and Naomi Fall, and the work will premiere at Suresnes Cités Danse in 2022.