Press

“Their movements, evoking certain animal gaits as well as classical dance steps, blend elegance with playfulness in a short form perfectly suited to very young children.”

Louise Reymond

"Under a shower of confetti, accompanied by a soundtrack blending percussion and Senegalese griot storytelling, this is a thirty-minute performance aimed at stimulating the discovery of sensations and sharing a moment of embodied poetry with the whole family, without requiring elaborate verbal language."

M.V.

"A veritable world tour of contemporary urban dance, the Franco-Senegalese choreographer's new creation is a shot of pure energy driven by eleven virtuoso streetdancers."

Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d'Amore

DUB at the 13e Art.

Review — In DUB, at the 13e Art theatre in Paris, he skillfully orchestrates eleven dancers, each with their own specialty, and sets the stage ablaze.

"Rarely does a show ignite audiences to this extent. DUB is a phenomenon. It has been performed and revived for two years now because nothing else quite compares.”

[...]

“On stage, the eleven performers have no agenda other than to play on their singularities and bring them together to see what happens when boundaries dissolve. Awir Leon, a dazzling DJ, leads the way, moving through rhythms, galloping across each performer’s virtuosity until a fever rises and spreads to the audience, where heads, arms, and feet are swept along. The beauty of DUB lies in its subtlety. Less carefully conceived, the piece could easily descend into chaos. Instead, from beginning to end, it remains a celebration in which every dance dazzles, cut like a diamond by its finest interpreter before blending back into the group: forms are freed, transgressed, boundaries are broken without losing oneself.”

[...]

“Dianor does not merely advocate the idea ‘Tell me how you dance, and I’ll tell you who you are.’ He opens dance up to the possibility of sharing—an utopia already dreamed of by Paul Fort in his Round Dance Around the World.”

Ariane Bavelier

In a piece conceived by the vocalists of Les Arts Florissants and choreographer Amala Dianor, ten dancers and singers brilliantly embody the final days of Christ.

Ysis Percq

"Between dance and passionate singing, the performance “Gesualdo Passione” explores the impact and stakes of the musical gesture, secretly and intimately aligned with the dancers’ movements."

Alban Deags

“Created in 2023 by Amala Dianor, DUB immerses us in the musical universe of the genre of the same name. Through a series of tableaux, the choreographer weaves together—with rhythm and subtlety—the many faces of the sixth art, building an artistic puzzle held together by a movement language that plays on contrasting styles: at once whirling and jagged, as well as fluid and curved.”

Safidin Alouache

“More than just a technical performance, DUB tells the story of life: kisses, jostling, and arguments unfold on stage, transforming this choreographic utopia into a vibrant portrait of global youth.”

Satya Ambroise

“DUB”: all rhythms united by Amala Dianor’s electrifying energy

[...]

Complementarity of styles and fusion within the group

"Each section of the performance explores the unique identity of each dancer while creating a group cohesion that reflects the diversity of cultural influences. The solos highlight the defining qualities of each style—the power of krump, the fluidity of house, and the technique of hip-hop—while the group sequences emphasize the collective dynamic.

Amala Dianor has conceived a staging in which the dancers seem to respond to one another, creating a visual and emotional interplay that is particularly captivating.”

Anabelle Plume

He orchestrates a vibrant celebration blending hip-hop with electronic sounds, or imagines choreography set to baroque choral music… Choreographer Amala Dianor delights in collisions between worlds that seem to have nothing in common.

Emmanuelle Bouchez

“The encounter between the worlds of Baroque music and contemporary dance has taken place. Often kept apart, audiences from both spheres came together for an evening filled with spirituality.”

Franck Giroud

"Between spirituality and humanity, this stage creation brings the past to life through a language of today."

"This sensitive and organic approach gives rise to a plural form of dance, nourished by a variety of techniques, which follows the vibrations of the voices and the emotions of the sacred text."

"Together, they create a performance where every note, every movement, seems to be born from the same breath."

David Pagès

"To tell the story of the Passion of Christ through contemporary dance? That’s the bold challenge taken up by the latest creation of Amala Dianor and the musical ensemble Les Arts Florissants."
"Amala Dianor chose a powerful staging that blends several art forms, where contemporary dance, music, and a cappella singing give the narrative a physical and particularly striking dimension."

"Amala Dianor chose a powerful staging that blends several art forms, where contemporary dance, music, and a cappella singing give the narrative a physical and particularly striking dimension."

Gil Martin

The company of choreographer Amala Dianor, who emerged from hip-hop, joins forces with the vocalists of Les Arts Florissants under Paul Agnew. It is a drama centered on Christ’s Passion, set to music by the Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo, in which two worlds commune in striking intimacy.

[...]

In this magnificent dance concert, two families of artists engage in an intimate dialogue, as rarely happens.

Emmanuelle Bouchez

Carefully crafted by Amala Dianor, this laid-back, melting-pot celebration—clearly enjoyed by everyone involved—makes for a performance that is as exhilarating as it is uplifting.

Delphine Baffour

Confronted with one another, in their differences and shared sensitivity, the dancers’ bodies gradually free themselves from their automatisms and patterns, until they create an original duet that draws its own rhythm from within itself.

"As I understand it, for Dianor, dance performance comes down to an “exchange” (see above: a “search for self and we-us,for a ground for play” between performers). Exchangeis also where spectators meet the performance. Exchangegoes alsofor the creation process. During our chat, Dianor remarked, “When I do a choreography, I follow the idea from the transformation it undergoes in passing through the people who are interpreting it...”.

Centered on what he calls dance “energy” or “liberation”, Dianor is not looking for a form of dance, genre, genres, style orstyles. He’s met dance performance and Dance is an exchange of energy and liberation all around. That may be a very hiphop view, I think, but it is certainly Dianor’s considered personal and professional view."

Tracy Danison

With Level Up, choreographer Amala Dianor presents his latest piece beneath the newly renovated nave of the Grand Palais. It’s a joyful dance in which the performers—each coming from different disciplines—interweave with elegance, without ever renouncing their individual styles.

Caroline Charron

Song and dance bring harmony, symmetry, and balance to the performance as a whole.

Between the art of singing and music and the art of dance, the piece moves from simplicity to complexity, and from learned art to popular expression.

The breadth and expressiveness of both the music and the dance open onto a form of liturgical beauty, vibrant with resonance. Gesualdo Passione is a meditation on death that ultimately sings of life.

Brigitte Rémer

"Each, in their own field, takes a step toward the other." – Amala Dianor, quoted by Eric Delhaye

Choreographer Amala Dianor shows up where one least expects him. Leaving behind his usual language—Dianor comes from hip-hop—he ventures into an expressionist dance that responds to the dramatic tones of the text and to the singers’ “a cappella, memorized” performances.

In a certain ecumenical spirit, they combine the power of the body with the emotional tension emanating from committed performers, and they skillfully convey a completely new physicality to the singers. They can create tender, sensitive ensembles as easily as they can stamp the ground, perform handstands, or, for Damiano Bigi, embody the Crucifixion. The upper-body and arm movements—prominent for both dancers and singers—and the images of Christ on the cross resonate deeply in our imagination. Everyone throws themselves passionately into this Passione, embracing the discourse of pain and suffering in Christ’s final days. The progression toward darkness is experienced by the choreographer as “a journey of the body,” where hope, despair, and acceptance collide. The voices carry the audience toward mysticism.

Odile Cougoule

The choreography mirrors the tension emitted by the continuum of voices and their vibrations, transmitting it into the dancers’ bodies. Just as the seemingly monotonous music, faithful to the modal language of its time, occasionally bursts apart under an overflow of pain or exaltation, so too do the dancers break free from these monodies, becoming turbulent, stamping the ground with their feet, or separating from the group.

Amala Dianor’s staging aligns with the images evoked in the motets: the dance highlights the striking dissonances of the counterpoint, underscoring the suffering of the crucified.

Mireille Davidovici

Closely intertwined with Gesualdo’s Responsories, the sublimely gifted dancers of the Amala Dianor Company have brought an extraordinary theatricality to this nocturnal and sacred music.

Beyond the powerful and superb choreography by Amala Dianor, Damiano Bigi is sculptural in intention yet overflowing with a natural sensuality, evoking the finest canvases of the old masters.

Pedro Octavio Diaz

Paul Agnew and Amala Dianor find common ground in the physicality implied by these events, and in the way the performers on stage can embody it. To the intensity, power, and commitment of the six singers’ voices responds a dance that echoes the modulations of the vocal cords, like layers of muscle tightening and releasing. Tensions, stretches, and vibrations feed states of the body deeply attuned to the emotions evoked by the music. Full of contrasts, the four dancers—shaped by classical, contemporary, and urban aesthetics—launch into a slow, deliberate progression toward darkness.

Nathalie Yokel

“DUB magnifies individual power while also celebrating sharing and the collective. Unmissable.”

Rosita Boisseau

“In creating Coquilles, the choreographer Amala Dianor expressed the desire to speak to very young children without sacrificing the aesthetic singularity of the piece.”

“The choreographer is guided by an intuition: the earlier sensory experiences occur, the more they become embedded in our bodies and stay with us throughout our lives.”

In a joyful display of colorful costumes, carefully designed by Minuit Deux and Fabrice Couturier, the performers offer glimpses of their individual choreographic voices while seamlessly blending into the group, driven by a fierce desire to share the groove with both their partners and the audience

Mireille Davidovici

What euphoria! What a thrill of gesture and virtuosity! DUB reinvigorates tributes to urban dance, the kind we often see, by bringing together different styles in an organic, joyful dialogue—like a fire spreading through space.

[...]

The theme of transformation at the heart of the piece is embodied through the sculptural movement of Grégoire Korganow. Across three distinct settings, it highlights the underground evolution of dance while also revealing the self-discovery it can provoke.

Rosita Boisseau

Opening up new spaces and flows for dance, cine-dance has produced fully fledged artistic forms of its own.

It is as if we are witnessing a solitary research process: gestures emerge, which the dancer attempts to arrange into short sequences, one way, then another. Subtle, Awir Leon’s music sprinkles the stage with its stellar dust, punctuated by long silences. From explosive surges in long undulations, dizzying spins on the knees, to hypnotic port de bras, Amala Dianor’s choreography combines the energy and precision isolations of urban dance with the linear fluidity of contemporary and classical dance. Weighted by its past, it constantly stretches toward the future.

Between mimicry and echo, challenge and display, the two dancers measure and observe each other, letting themselves be influenced by the other’s movement or momentarily taking the upper hand: Marion Alzieu with the ultra-precision of her trajectories, Mwendwa Marchand with her breathtaking backbends.

"It’s as if he’s dancing both inside and outside his own skin."

Muriel Steinmetz

Here, movements hybridize without ever erasing individuality; groups form and dissolve, and the night becomes a shared horizon.

[...]

Amala Dianor is a provocateur, the kind who twists the rules—his own as well as others’. He is attentive, and equally capable of bringing people together.

Philippe Noisette

This journey into Amala Dianor’s universe reveals a choreography that meets both the self and others. It is an immersion into an exceptionally lively repertoire of dance, images, and music, offering a joyful and festive sense of abandon!

“Two bodies, two characters on the path to encounter: Amala Dianor finds the right tone to offer very young audiences the possibility of a curious and open gaze on the world, open to experience.”

“Watching these animals dance is ultimately to witness the expression of a humanity free from any other bias of perception. And while dance does all the work, the choreographer has not neglected the visual universe: a few umbrellas, a few confetti pieces, and a playful environment comes to life, leading bodies to break the boundaries of styles, ultimately paying tribute to the great American musicals.”

Nathalie Yokel

With Love You, Drink Water, the three artists set out to present a hybrid form, somewhere between concert, dance piece, and video performance.

In the spotlight, Awir Léon commands the stage, while Amala Dianor appears intermittently or delivers solos of breathtaking elegance. Behind his mobile camera, Grégoire Korganow captures close-ups, attempting to follow the singer on stage, mischievously guided by Amala Dianor.

Delphine Goater

This instinctive love of dialogue has been at the heart of every Amala Dianor performance since the founding of his company in 2012.

Rosita Boisseau

In dialogue with Awir Leon’s ethereal electronic universe, Amala Dianor creates a poetic and sensitive dance, nourished by a hip-hop vocabulary.

B.Ma

The compositions for dance by electro-soul musician Awir Leon prove to be a magical vehicle for movement. He invited his collaborator, hip-hop choreographer Amala Dianor, to join him in bringing his third album, Love You, Drink Water, to life through gesture. With a lineup like this, one can expect sensuality and generosity to be abundant, all immersed in a visual bath created by Grégoire Korganow, visual artist and photographer.

Rosita Boisseau

On the Grand Stage, Amala Dianor and Awir Leon delivered a flamboyant duo of dance and song, framed by the stunning visuals of Grégoire Korganow, in Love You, Drink Water.

Amala Dianor weaves himself into the music, sometimes in solo, sometimes in duet with Awir Leon. The deep friendship between the two men contributes to this remarkable harmony, enhanced by the visuals of videographer Grégoire Korganow.

Jean-Frédéric Saumont

Different, yet united in the same excellence: the beauty of gesture, the precision of movement, the sensitivity to vibrations.

Balance unravels and recomposes. They brush past each other, drift apart, respect one another, touching only once—at the wrist, fleetingly. Where the pulse beats. Each seeks the tipping point, the place where their art is so masterful that their bodies allow themselves to be “challenged” by the unexpected

Brigitte Hernandez

"What interests me is seeing their energies act and react to one another."

"It is our role as artists to summon each person’s unconscious and try to set things in motion."

Brigitte Hernandez

"The key to movement lies in listening."

Here, Amala moves even further into contemporary dance. He gives Mwendwa Marchand the chance to shine in new registers.

Amélie Blaustein-Niddam

"We are kept on the edge of our seats, even by that audacious finale in silence, where only the blackbird from La Parenthèse dares to sing…"

Emmanuel Serafini

The duo, which sometimes verges on a duel, offers everything we love about dance: the singularity of the two performers, heightened by their connection, blends elegance and determination, sensitivity and technique. With a sly smile in every exchanged glance, M&M present a duo of great beauty that leaves you wishing it could last longer.

Louise Chevillard

Amala Dianor has that rare skill of revealing performers in each of his creations. For M&M, he sets dancers Marion Alzieu and Mwendwa Marchand in motion in a luminous duet where movement becomes language.

While preserving their individuality, the two coexist through and for movement. They perform with ease and genuine joy in being together. Their delight in being on stage radiates all the way to the last row.

Laurent Bourbousson

This unexpected fusion can reveal a surprising harmony between these two very different personalities, and bears witness to Amala Dianor’s ability to invent new vocabularies that ripple out infinitely.

Agnès Izrine

Perhaps the first great achievement of DUB, the new creation by Franco-Senegalese choreographer Amala Dianor, is to showcase, even in more institutional venues, the inventiveness of a new generation of urban dancers—virtuosos in the art of transforming various street dances and seasoning them with local flair.

Ève Beauvallet

With DUB, Amala Dianor brings to the stage a community of urban dancers who dazzle the audience. In an ambitious staging, they showcase the diversity of their styles with electrifying energy.

Belinda Mathieu

The nine dancers weave the most intricate, complex routines with a high degree of energy. Their faces are regularly wreathed in smiles and in a sequence at the end of the first part they were reminiscent of children having a great deal of fun as they rolled on the floor but the precision with which they moved was spellbinding. The nine dancers used the full extents of the stage and the ability of individual dancers to hold excruciatingly challenging shapes was captivating.

Frank L.

His dances have an immediacy, but are underpinned by rigorous choreographic craft and are always centred on the individual. Rather than treat dancers as instruments that follow his instructions, his collaborative approach to creation focuses on the person.

Michael Seaver

I’m not exactly sure who he is. I know he dances like he breathes. I know talking isn’t really his thing. Dancing, gliding—from moonwalk to breakdance—being in motion, that’s what he’s about. For him, movement begins in the land of the sabar and Doudou N’Diaye Rose, in Senegal.

Listen to the podcast: https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/en-sol-majeur/20220423-amala-dianor-du-corps-en-barre

By Yasmine Chouaki

For more than ten years, the choreographer has moved from one movement language to another with virtuosity, weaving together disciplines across new spaces for encounter and collaboration. With his new creations Wo-man and Point Zéro, Amala Dianor reinvents his choreographic language and celebrates the joy of dancing with other bodies.

By Belinda Mathieu

“Inspired by the idea of trying unexpected collaborations on each new project, Amala Dianor has now begun creating a “magical monster” in Siguifin. This ambitious work brings together three co creator/ choreographers: Souleymane Ladji Koné, Naomi Fall and Alioune Diagne, as well as nine young dancers from Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. This company, under the direction of Amala Dianor imagined a sort of cadavre exquis (“Exquisite Corpse”) game in three parts, each of which explores different facets of contemporary Africa, highlighting the diversity and the gaps separating these countries which may be geographically adjacent but which are nonetheless quite different.”

Marie Pons

We were offered a pure moment of dance, both collective and individual, in which everyone had a role within a fluid alternation of perspectives, styles, and gestures.

(…) Combining breakdance with weightlessness, floor work with elevation, he also managed to infuse his movements with an added soul. A virtuosity that came from within, far removed from the flashy showmanship his natural abilities might have invited.

(…) There is no doubt, however, that the strong personality of this young professional—graduate of the CNSMD in Lyon, with training in both African and contemporary dance—will soon allow her to fully claim this first-person expression of the sheer will to exist.

By Isabelle Calabre

A frontal or profile line emerges in the calm of body percussion; this very Laban-inspired choral dance is reinforced by the lines of the costumes, reminiscent of choreographic notation or a Mondrian composition. Pauses allow for breath and stillness. The leader of the troupe gives voice and direction with clear, commanding authority. (…) A comic dimension is fully embraced, claimed in this epic, an odyssey of Africa in vibrant motion. With both detachment and distinction, the choreography is strong, precise, and variable, as in a brief, clever robotic episode made of disjointed puppets. In the epilogue, a cohesive image of a heterogeneous group comes together to celebrate rhythm and the joy of the collective!

Geneviève Charras

In this female alter ego, Amala Dianor has found a virtuosity akin to his own, expressed through a magnificent blue costume.

(…) Open to each other’s suggestions, they are fully attentive to one another, bringing new energy and their own movement language to the work.

Delphine Goater

"One of the most beautiful promesses of the year."

P.N

Amala Dianor, the Franco-Senegalese choreographer and dancer, is riding a wave of success this season with a major tour and currently two productions on stage. Among them is Siguifin, a multi-handed piece in which he collaborates with three young African choreographers from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal. In another production, he brings together two short works, Point Zéro and Wo-Man, at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris as part of the Faits d’hiver festival program.

By Muriel Maalouf

Amala Dianor brings together two creations for an exceptional evening. By channeling fierce youth in Wo-Man and the legacy of danced journeys in Point Zéro, the choreographer is at the height of his art.

Louise Chevillard

As a dancer and choreographer, he places great importance on mutual support and the transmission of knowledge. The various works of his company are guided by this principle.

“To create a more optimistic dialogue, the creator of this work gives each dancer the same chances, opening out geographic and stylistic horizons.”

Rosita Boisseau

“To the electro-atmospheric music of Awir Leon, who has worked with Dianor for years, he leads his colleagues into an exploration of deep waters, cruising through paths they have traveled before, revisiting the fundamentals, the channels they need to open to keep moving forward. This will be an exciting trio.”

Rosita Boisseau

“To create a more optimistic dialogue, the creator of this work gives each dancer the same chances, opening out geographic and stylistic horizons.”

Rosita Boisseau

“In 2020, Amala Dianor, instead of reviving his own solo, imagined for this dancer a prolongation of the choreography, recreating it on the body of a young woman. A vibrant, pulsating dancer, Nangaline allows him to transpose himself into an entirely different body, reconstructing, reinventing and rewriting his journey. This solo resonates like an extension, a prolongation of [him]self, supported by this dancer’s tonicity, vitality and commitment,”

By Philippe Noisette

“(…) These three choreographers are also ‘operators,’ says Amala Dianor. In Senegal, Alioune launched a festival, as did Naomi in Mali. In Burkina Faso, Ladji set up the hip hop dance collective Jump which acts as an incubator and also organizes dance battles. Onstage the dancers are not at all similar: Senegal has quite dynamic performers whereas those from Mali are largely self-taught but lack essential structure. The piece seeks to create connections between them all.”

Eve Beauvallet

“(…) Choreographed in the manner of the game of cadavre exquis, in a series of tableaux with rapid-fire tempo changes, Siguifin interweaves brilliantly undulating hip hop moves and tribal dances, here happily free of the rather vulgar clichés which we often see. The nine young dancers are overflowing with energy; we want to cheer them on, jumping up and down.”

A.A

“Siguifin means “magical monster” in the Bambara language, indicating the work’s roots in Africa. This new piece by Amala Dianor brings together a group of talented dancers. Together they celebrate the vitality channeling the overflowing artistic enthusiasm of the African continent.”

Interview with Arnaud Laporte

“From Suresnes cité danse to Faits d’hiver, Amala Dianor is making an impact at the festivals in early 2022. Having trained in contemporary dance and hip hop, the French-Senegalese choreographer claims a blended, hybrid movement vocabulary over the years and with his collaborators. He priorizes communication and sharing in his work, notably in the three pieces he is showing in the Paris region during the month of January.”

Interview with Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d’Amore

“(…) Point Zéro, a brand new work by Dianor, is an ode to movement. It accentuates the pelvis, dares to let the bodies undulate, deconstructing the trio form. You can’t tell which genre is infiltrating which form, the contemporary or the urban dancing. In nuanced work, the choreographer creates an autobiography of three friends gradually caught up in the passage of time. Point Zéro is however not about nostalgia, focusing more on the energy of the dancing. (…) Before our eyes, the soloist in Wo-Man seems to take on different faces, that of a warrior or of a child. To an electronic music score by Awir Léon, Gomis’ movement is precise, quite inventive. Wild currents of adrenaline seem to ripple through her limbs, accelerating to the point of exhaustion.”

Philippe Noissette

“A winner: Amala Dianor and Siguifin, a collaboration with African dancers.”

Philippe Noissette

"(…) Before our eyes, the soloist in Wo-Man seems to take on different faces, that of a warrior or of a child. To an electronic music score by Awir Léon, Gomis’ movement is precise, quite inventive. Wild currents of adrenaline seem to ripple through her limbs, accelerating to the point of exhaustion.”
Marie-Valentine Chaudon

“It’s an Amala Dianor dance festival right now. The choreographer will present his piece Siguifin at Suresnes Cités Danse. Siguifin, which means “magical monster” in Bambara, celebrates the vitality of dance which reflects the overflowing artistic enthusiasm driving the African continent.”

Stéphane Capron

“Together, they celebrate the vitality of dance, channeling the spirit of artistic enthusiasm which permeates the African continent.”

Stéphane Capron

"(…) here we find Amala Dianor’s Wo-Man, resulting from the transmission of his iconic solo Man Rec to the dancer Nangaline Gomis, who like Dianor, is from Senegal.”

Nathalie Yokel

"(…) Usually fast-paced, hip-hop here makes us wait. Gestures are pooled together, far from the competitive and challenging norms of the art. A refreshing upheaval of customary practice. (…) A frenzied group effect. Yet each dancer retains a spark of individuality. They differentiate themselves without being reduced to mere cogs. The body moves in blocks of anatomy: rotating shoulders, a flat back with the consistency of stone, blotter-like hands that drink the air, feet tracing the perfect shape of the tempo, one voice acting as lookout to guide the group, onomatopoeias signaling a change in rhythm. The whole body accommodates hybrid movements. (…)"

Muriel Steinmetz

“At the Maison de la danse, the choreographer will himself dance in Extension, then in Point Zéro. At more than 45 years old, he is currently planning his next work for twelve dancers, in collaboration with the plastician Grégoire Korganow, and inspired by Greek mythology.”

“Through his own experience, he gradually built his own transdisciplinary language (melding hip hop, neoclassical, African dance and contemporary dance), notable for its virtuosity, simplicity, the absencce of spectacular effects, the exploration of the fundamental materials in movement and the body.”

Jean-Emmanuel Denave

“Placed somewhere between contemporary, ballet, hip hop and African dance, he creates a hybrid of their vocabularies, revealing a unique language which seeks the link between our differences. Luminous and poetic, his dancing consists of powerful, feline movements. Amala Dianor continues to seduce both audiences and programmers.”

“Having been part of the Babel project established in 2018, these five impassioned dancers bulldoze their way into disobedience, attempting to make their dreams come true.”

“Since transmission and collective work have always been essential components for this creator, it is for five hip hop dancers that he participated in the choreography of Urgence (Urgency), a near conjuring of urban rage as a form of personal emancipation.”

L.H.

" Entre contemporain, classique, hip)hop et danse africaine, il hybride les écritures laissant apparaître un langage d'ouverture qui cherche le lien entre les différences. Lumineuse et poétique, sa danse pose ses respirations dans une gestuelle à la fois puissante et féline. Amala Dianor séduit le public et les programmateurs."

“In 2020, Amala Dianor, instead of reviving his own solo, imagined for this dancer a prolongation of the choreography, recreating it on the body of a young woman. A vibrant, pulsating dancer, Nangaline allows him to transpose himself into an entirely different body, reconstructing, reinventing and rewriting his journey. This solo resonates like an extension, a prolongation of [him]self, supported by this dancer’s tonicity, vitality and commitment,”

L. H

"“(...) The power of the group is as compelling as it is impressive, driven by its nonstop rhythm. But gradually they do separate, the personalities of each dancer emerging, the extraordinary vocal presence and power of Rama Koné, from Burkina Faso; she is a dancer and singer of unmatched potential. Hiphop movements are part of this, complemented by a number of traditional, diverse dances. Brilliantly intercut isolations and slow passages, unison and separation, this dance moves at a ferocious pace, carrying us with it, in a choreographic journey which includes Mali, Burkina Faso and Sénégal. (...)”

Agnès Izrine

"(…) Carried with gentleness and precision by the Franco-Senegalese choreographer—whose refined aesthetic, skillfully blending hip-hop and contemporary dance, is the strength of his works from The Falling Stardust to Urgence—Siguifin captivates with the vigor and energy radiating from the stage. Interweaving tribal dances and street dance across its tableaux, it offers a kaleidoscopic view of emerging African choreography and showcases the vibrant force of nine young dancers on their path to professionalism."

Interview with Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d’Amore

In the monumental forum of the Palais (de la Porte Dorée), nine young performers (six male dancers and three female dancers, one with a powerful, mesmerizing voice) display remarkable energy and invigorating freshness. The choreography blends contemporary, urban, and African movement vocabularies, with firmly grounded weight and feet pounding the floor.

By Delphine Baffour

(…) Nine young performers (six male dancers and three female dancers, one of whom has a powerful, mesmerizing voice) display remarkable energy and invigorating freshness. The choreography blends contemporary, urban, and African movement vocabularies, with grounded weight and feet pounding the floor. The “exquisite corpse” takes shape and gives rise to a “magical monster” (the meaning of Siguifin in Bambara)—protean yet fluid and coherent—offering moments of sheer delight.

By Delphine Baffour

“The title means ‘magical monster’ in Bambara, carrying nuances and some of the moves from the cadavre exquis game in this collective creation, which shows different voices and bodies in intense dialogue, reflecting the spirit of artistic enthusiasm driving the entire continent, (…). Promising.”

Maïlys Celeux-Lanval

“I wanted to change how we see Africa and focus on the young people who have chosen to stay there, to live on the land. It is a group work, I am just the foreman, the contractor. We create a dialogue between hip hop, contemporary dance and African dance inside a specific rhythmic envelope, building toward exciting the emotions of the audience.”

Amala Dianor, interview with Marie-Valentine Chaudon

“In these unexpected innovative movements there is such freedom in the bodies, with such pent-up bursts of energy. Their rage is expressed as something vital, imperative. The music of Awir Léon, (…), infuses the work with warm tones and a driving rhythmic physicality.”

Agnès Izrine

“Time seems to stop onstage during Culturebox, the program where the dancers and choreographers Amala Dianor and Johanna Faye (from the Compagnie Amala Dianor) present the creation Point Zéro.
You may find this program presented by Daphné Bürki and Raphäl, here: www.bit.ly/3sSxHFz.”

“Opening up the horizon, complicating the way we see: the choreographer Amala Dianor is alwaus trying to go farther. Between hip hop and contemporary dance, fed by African influences as well, notably the Senegalese sabaar dance, his supple, acrobatic movements flow with a pleasing grace and class.”

“I had a lot of cancellations this year, but not many postponements,” he continued. “Being at the TCE with the dancers, who were not employees, they were on unemployment and in financial peril, and whom I had not seen since March -- is fantastic. Whether they’re there in person or remotely, they are with us and they give meaning to our profession.” Interview by Rosita Boisseau

and Brigitte Salino

“Amala Dianor is clearly going places, he was invited to perform at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon and at the Montpellier Festival last year; a hybridization is possible, partly because of his solid ballet training and technique: his Falling stardust is a great platform for flying bodies. His willingness to commit to helping a number of young dancers has generated some promising results, notably in West Africa where he often works.”

Jacqueline Thuilleux

“Inspired by the idea of trying unexpected collaborations on each new project, Amala Dianor has now begun creating a “magical monster” in Siguifin. This ambitious work brings together three co creator/ choreographers: Souleymane Ladji Koné, Naomi Fall and Alioune Diagne, as well as nine young dancers from Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. This company, under the direction of Amala Dianor imagined a sort of cadavre exquis (“Exquisite Corpse”) game in three parts, each of which explores different facets of contemporary Africa, highlighting the diversity and the gaps separating these countries which may be geographically adjacent but which are nonetheless quite different.”

Marie Pons

“It is what we call a pure moment of grace, because of performances which move you, which make your heart swell. Wednesday, on stage at the Grand théâtre, Héloïse Gaillard and Amala Dianor celebrated their differences: the artistic director of the Ensemble Amarillis was named a Chevalier of the National Order of Merit; whereas the founder of the company which bears his name received the decoration of Chevalier of Arts and Letters.”
Laurent Bauvallet

“Finally, Amala Dianor’s dancing is quieter than what we are used to -- (…) Here he presents his first official work, in which he deconstructs the academic side of ballet in The Falling Stardust, symbolically fairly significant here. The dancers are all in black, dancing to sporadically symphonic music, the movement is hybrid, crossing lines all over the place. Unsettling, Amala Dianor proves emphatically that ballet, contemporary dance and hip hop dance can work together quite well.”

François Delétraz

“The confrontation of hip hop with ballet movements and vocabulary which uses arabesques as perfect lines offer fleeting images which are sometimes too predictable. Happily there are flashes of nervous energy driving the pace of the work.”

R.BU

“With The Falling Stardust, as with most of my pieces,” he says, “I try to build a rapport between the dancers onstage. The dialogue is not only with the audience; I want the dancers to realize they are not alone onstage, that they must interact with the others. There’s a sort of double perspective.”

Interview with Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d’Amore

“The stated goal: ‘having a grouping of vocabularies and aesthetics in order to find -- then lose -- structures we are used to using’ while clearly stepping away from the question of virtuosity.”

Lise Ott

“The range of the vocabulary, the ease in passing from one register to another, the ability to fuse the varying styles in order to form a homogenous ensemble -- drive this mystical journey. There is an abundance of energy, variations in the shapes and movements and arrangements of the bodies.”

Thomas Hahn

“Their gazing deep into the audience gives them a sort of anchor point to work with. But when we look at the others, the markers change slightly. Looking at someone else and moving while doing so, destabilizes and refracts their points of contact -- this was an important part of the dancers’ work, along with the need for them to engage intellectually, to make decisions, to react to others’ actions.”

Nathalie Yokel

“Onstage I seek to validate the individual, the dancer, to bring each of them to a space less about virtuosity than vulnerability -- so they may be seen differently.”

“The work is about both strength and fragility, doubt and conviction, in its answer to the renewed challenge of a shared open form of dance.”

“Always engaged, the powerful hybrid dancing of Amala Dianor gracefully constructs bridges between aesthetic concepts, to the great delight of the spectator.”

“This choreography is again a story involving encounters, improbable yet credible.”

“This is a group work with a balletic influence. Its original idea was to move the technique somewhere else; I wanted to invite dancers to work with who had confirmed talent in a specific dance form, be it contemporary, ballet or hip hop. These forms are generally seen in works based on just one of the techniques, but here they combine into a new form, including the dancers’ personalities, stepping into spaces where they feel more vulnerable, as it is not just their virtuosity which is visible and at stake.”

Thomas Hahn

In doing so, he will lead ballet dancers—masters of the pure technique of classical movement—onto a terrain where engaging with his work guides them toward a vulnerability that becomes both the strength and the significance of the encounter.

“His declared objective: to tell his own stories, going beyond technique, finding meaning another way, creating choreography in which the dancers are dancing selflessly, giving their all.”

Lise Ott

The Senegalese-born choreographer reinvents spatial geometry on the stage of the Théâtre des Abbesses.

He works at the intersection of hip-hop and contemporary dance. Senegalese-born dancer and choreographer Amala Dianor is increasingly in the spotlight. Five years after founding his company, he presents two of his creations at the Théâtre de la Ville, in the Salle des Abbesses, a temple of contemporary dance in Paris, running through tomorrow evening. These are two trios titled “Somewhere in the Middle of Infinity” and *“New School.” Amala Dianor joins us to talk about them.

The eclectic and brilliant choreographer Amala Dianor presents “De(s)génération” on Saturday, March 10, and Sunday, March 11, at the Théâtre d’Angoulême as part of the La Tête dans les Nuages festival—a high-energy tribute to the origins of hip-hop dance.

A creation with local participants, a battle, and major tours.

But in our interview, Amala Dianor emphasizes above all the necessity for any choreographer to take time to question their own approach, sometimes even through a process of creation. As in the trio Somewhere in the Middle of Infinity, which he reprises at Pôle-Sud from May 16 to 17.

A central figure on the French dance scene, the Franco-Senegalese choreographer explains his choice to blend hip-hop with African dances and contemporary dance.

A big, refreshing breath of hip-hop. Exceptional technical mastery and generosity, combined with a lightness and humor that blow away the surrounding gloom…

After performing for numerous hip-hop and contemporary choreographers, Amala Dianor founded his own company in 2012. Drawing on contemporary, neo-classical, and African dance, this Senegalese-born artist is one of the few to renew hip-hop vocabulary, liberating it from its prescribed forms. He also enjoys sharing the stage with dancers whose approach differs from his own. The Séquence Danse festival at Centquatre presents two of his works: “Man Rec”, derived from a Wolof expression meaning “Only Me,” a solo serving as a personal identity card performed by Dianor himself, and his new creation, “Somewhere in the Middle of Infinity.”

Headlining the Séquence Danse festival at Centquatre, the choreographer presents his piece “Somewhere in the Middle of Infinity.”

Rooted in street culture and trained in contemporary dance, this Senegalese-born choreographer develops a singular movement language that transcends genres. Don’t miss him at Centquatre this week.