Fagaala

In Fagaala (Wolof for genocide), Senegalese choreographer Germaine Acogny, a celebrated pioneer of contemporary African dance, teams up with dancer/choreographer Kota Yamazaki from Japan. Together, the two have worked to find a common language capable of transmitting the tragedy of genocide.

Set in a surrealist landscape where insanity, beauty and hope collide, the seven male dancers utilize body and voice to evoke the symbolic language of suffering and despair, but also of hope and union. Inspired by Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop’s book Murambi, The Book of Bones (the first fictionalized account of the genocide in Rwanda), Fagaala incorporates aspects of Butoh, contemporary, and traditional West African dance in an attempt to convey the absurdity of genocide and to combat the fear, hate and vengeance which threaten to overrun both the victims and witnesses of such tragedy.

“They shone a light on one of the most horrific crimes of the late twentieth century and created beauty out of it.” – Dance Magazine