Senegalese and French, Germaine Acogny participated from 1962 till 1965 at the formation at the Simon Siegel’s school (the director was Ms Marguerite Lamotte) in Paris and received a diploma of physical education and harmonious gymnastics. Then, she founded her first dance studio in Dakar, 1968. Thanks to the influence of the dances she had inherited from her grandmother, a Yoruba priest, and to her studies of traditional African dances and Occidental dances (classic, modern) in Paris and New York, Germaine Acogny created her own technique of Modern African Dance and is considered as the “mother of Contemporary African dance”.

Between 1977 and 1982 she was artistic director of MUDRA AFRIQUE (Dakar), created by Maurice Béjart and the Senegalese president and poet Leopold Sedar Senghor. In 1980, she writes her first book untitled “African Dance”, translated in three languages. Once Mudra Afrique had closed, she moved to Brussels to work with Maurice Béjart’s company, she organised international African dance workshops, which showed a great success among the European students. This same experience was repeated in Africa, in Fanghoumé, a small village in Casamance, in the south of Senegal.

Alesandra Seutin is a choreographer, performer, and director whose distinctive multidisciplinary approach weaves together movement, text, and music to explore identity, memory, and the politics of the body.

Her artistic journey has led her from performing in numerous international productions to creating her own company, Alesandra Seutin (formerly Vocab Dance), in 2007. Through this platform, she has built a diverse body of work, earning acclaim for her poetic, politically engaged pieces that interrogate notions of power, belonging, and place.

Deeply committed to teaching and transmission, Alesandra trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Middlesex University in London before immersing herself in the Acogny Technique in Senegal, under the guidance of Germaine Acogny. Today, she is recognised as a worldwide ambassador and teacher of the technique, regularly invited to lead masterclasses across Europe, Africa, and beyond.

Alesandra has led projects as Guest Artistic Director of the UK’s National Youth Dance Company (2019–2021) and Co-Artistic Director of Ecole des Sables in Senegal (2020–2024). She has received over 20 commissions from international institutions including Sadler’s Wells, KVS Brussels, and Phoenix Dance Theatre.

She is currently a face of KVS and an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, and was awarded the Golden Afro Artistic Award for Dance & Choreography in Belgium in 2023.

Wesley Ruzibiza is a dancer, actor, choreographer, and director. Raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he moved to Rwanda, his country of origin, in 1999. He was studying financial management at the National University of Rwanda when he encountered the world of contemporary arts. While observing a dance workshop, the choreographer surprisingly invited him to join the group. He took off his shoes and since that day never left. Ruzibiza holds an African Contemporary Dance and Germaine Acogny diploma. From 2002-2010 he took over the direction of the Dance Department at the University Center of Arts and Drama. Today, he is the Artistic Director of the Amizero Kompagnie that he co-founded in 2005 with the National University of Rwanda UCAD, with which he won multiple international awards.

He is the co-artistic Director of l’Ecole des Sables, an Associate Professor at the Dance and Research Center (CPARC) in Bordeaux, France, and at the Muda Africa Dance School in Tanzania, among others.