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In the space given of three weeks, the Godown is hosting Dance Encounters Nairobi in partnership with Gaara Projects and the French Cultural Centre.

It is a 3-week long program from 23 August to 11 September comprised of performances, workshops and exchanges by dancers and choreographers from East Africa, Ethiopia, the Congo, Madagascar and South Africa.

The Gaara Project

Artistic director of the first contemporary dance company in Kenya, Opiyo Okach is amongst a new generation of innovative African choreographers acclaimed by the press and profession. Opiyo was trained at the Desmond Jones School of Mime and Physical Theatre in London. On his return to Kenya in 1995, Opiyo Okach integrated dance in his work and researched on traditional ritual and performance. It is at this time that he met choreographers Alphonse Tiérou, Irène Tassembedo and Germaine Acogny.

In I996 Opiyo joined Faustin Linyekula and Afrah Tenambergen to form the first contemporary dance company in Kenya, La Compagnie Gàara. With its first creation, Cleansing, in which the mundane gesture of everyday cleaning gravitates towards violent purification, the company won a prize at the Choreographic Encounters and an invitation to Creations d’Afrique of Montpellier Danse ‘98.

Dividing his time between France and Kenya since 2000, he has initiated Generations 2001, a new project of choreographic exchange and development in Nairobi with the support of Ford Foundation, Ballet Atlantique-Régine Chopinot, Association Française d’Action Artistique, Unesco Aschberg and Maison Francaise Nairobi. The project combines dancer training, residency programs, research and choreographic creation.

For more information, please visit The Gàara Projects .

The Studios Kabako

The Studios Kabako organization is dedicated to the development of dance and visual theatre
in Kinshasa. It aims both at addressing artistic and aesthetic issues and at fostering professional and structural skills through research, creation and circulation.

With support from local and international partners, the Studios Kabako has presented over the past 18 months four dance works, “Spectacularly Empty” (2001), “Triptyque Sans Titre” (2002) and “Spectacularly Empty II” (2003), three works by Faustin Linyekula and “Le Sentier” (2003) by Madrice Imbujo Itoko.

Partnership has also been established with different institutions including the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Strasbourg, France) where Faustin Linyekula is regularly conducting workshops and the Collectif 12 (Mantes-La-Jolie, France).

Contacts are also being made with the KAAY FECC dance festival (Senegal), the Kenyan-based GAARA Dance Company and the Egyptian theatre company El Warsha.