From Dakar’s Medina to Bordeaux, Senegalese dancer and choreographer Khady Sarr shares how tradition, breath and rootedness shape her art — blending sabar, contemporary forms and teaching to preserve cultural heritage.
Khady Sarr is a Senegalese dancer, choreographer and teacher who has been living in Bordeaux, France, for several years.
Born in the heart of the iconic and popular Medina district of Dakar, the artist has roots in three linguistic communities: the Serer, Lebou and Diola. She grew up between Dakar, Casamance and the village of Kelle.
Dance has always been part of her life. Passed down as a cultural heritage, she was immersed, like all Senegalese people, in the vibrations of rituals and popular festivals. At primary school, she felt dance in her body and soul for the first time during a party organised at her school and led by professional artists from the ‘Foret Sacrée’ company. It was a revelation: she felt the beauty, power and freedom of dance.
When did you start dancing?
I started to take a different interest in dance at school when I went to watch professional artists rehearsing at the Blaise-Senghor cultural centre. At the time, I was doing athletics at the Iba Mar Diop stadium and my mother didn’t want me to do ballet because she wanted me to concentrate on my studies.
Dance has always been a part of me, it has always been part of my ecosystem. I started a more professional dance course when I was around 16 or 17 with the master choreographer Joe Coly, alias Joe Bousenzy.
What does dance mean to you?
It’s breathing, it’s life in motion, a unique space for dialogue with oneself, with living things and with the cosmos. Dance is a unique and universal language, a code that transcends borders, skin colours, linguistic and emotional barriers.
How would you describe the dance you practise?
I practise and teach a sensitive form of dance, marked by authenticity and simplicity. Through dance, I open a window onto a communion between the earth and the sky, the wind, water and fire. My dance borrows from the breath to offer this space for connection or reconnection.
Why teach?
As an artist, I consider myself lucky that life has placed me where I am, with sensitivity as my tool. I often tell myself that I am like a hummingbird that must do its part and contribute through dance! Receiving and giving is a normal and necessary cycle to ensure continuity. Art is a school in its own right and its contribution, regardless of cultural codes, is essential and complementary to the rest of life, enabling individual and collective development.
And how do you pass it on?
I will answer with great care because it is a central question: for me, passing on something means first becoming aware of what you have received, questioning it and analysing it so that you can then identify what is common and universal to pass on. That said, for me, passing on knowledge also means having an appreciation for others, respecting them and having a sense of responsibility because, in the case of traditional dance, we are part of a collective culture, a cultural heritage handed down by our ancestors.
Would you say that dance is a way of telling stories without words?
Indeed, and this is true of all African traditions; language is encoded in music and movement. Music, through drums, has always been used to communicate and convey specific messages, and depending on the rhythms played, the meaning and purpose are not the same, and the same is true of dance.
For example, sometimes you can stand next to two griots who are talking to each other through the drum without you understanding a word. You have to be initiated and receive, understand, and then give and pass on in the most authentic way possible. It’s a way of preserving cultural heritage; it’s like a school with a great teaching tradition.
Being rooted in the earth and connected to oneself seem to be the pillars of your teaching approach…
That’s right. Breathing and being rooted in the earth are the first steps to take in order to connect with oneself and then with the rest.
For several years now, I have been observing our society and its evolution, which is damaging human resources. Everything is moving too fast, and machines are replacing humans in many areas. This reality is increasingly disconnecting us from our natural rhythm and causing new imbalances in our bodies, minds and the way we move.
Breathing is the best painkiller in the world, a natural and simple tool that naturally regulates our nervous system and emotions. The Earth is the central element on which everything rests. It represents solidity, strength and vibration that welcomes music and redistributes it to us through dance. We dance barefoot in constant contact with the Earth. So breath and Earth have become the fundamental basis of my work.
You say: ‘My goal is not to make you love my dance, but to help you discover your own and to dare.’
Dance is in all of us, a gift given by life. My goal is to try to accompany each person that life puts in my path to feel their own dance and dare to live it. This is also the meaning behind my two projects for passing on my knowledge. The masterclass ‘Oser le cercle – Sabar et Féminité’ (Dare to form a circle – Sabar and Femininity) and the ‘Classe Tambali’ (Tambali Class)
You can’t teach someone to dance; you can only give them the tools to reconnect with themselves and their buried memories so that they can find themselves and reveal themselves through dance.
In Bordeaux, you benefited from the teaching of Adama Camara and Ousmane Gallo Soumah, two great dancers from the African ballets of Guinea, then from the support of choreographer Vincent Harisdo during the creation of his solo dance piece ‘Racines’. Can you describe this stage of your life that fuels your passion for sabar and dance?
First of all, I should point out that I practise several types of dance. I wasn’t taught sabar by anyone, except by Senegal; it is a legacy and a natural teaching through observation, mime and oral transmission by my environment. I was immersed in my Lebou culture where, like all children and young people, I went through a natural learning process through everyday life and the elements.
Later, I identified and perfected my skills. It was a wonderful, natural and rich journey with sabar, which I call social sabar (sabar of connections, danced by people in the neighbourhood, at weddings and baptisms), as opposed to ballet sabar, which is intended for shows and performances. Today, I continue to learn through research in order to deepen my knowledge, as there is still so much to learn and share.
My foundation is social sabar. Guinean ballet dances, the stage. What I learned were Mandinka dances, first from Master Joe, choreographer of the Forêt Sacrée ballet in Blaise-Senghor, Senegal, who trained many Senegalese artists.
Then, when I arrived in Bordeaux, I continued learning Mandinka dances from Guinea with Mame Adama Camara and Ousmane Gallo, two great artists who were in African ballet companies. Later, in France and then in Mali, I danced and learned traditional dances with the incredible dancer Brahima Bandiougou Coulibaly.
Curious and passionate about dance, I also took contemporary dance classes with the Lullaby company under choreographer Alain Gonotey. All these experiences and training have nourished my artistic universe and provided me with a rich foundation for my creations. I am a freelance performer and have several shows on important themes, which can be seen on my company’s website, Cie Cadi Sarr, and on my own website.
As part of the second working residency for the show Racine, I was able to work with and benefit from the expertise and outside perspective of Beninese choreographer Vincent Harisdo in Bordeaux.
To go even further and better understand the body and its control, you also trained in yogalates and Pilates at Evelyne Frugier’s centre in Cannes. Why did you choose this path?
It was thanks to my encounter with the wonderful Salamata Diallo, who lives on the island of Réunion and teaches African dance and Pilates, that I was able to make the connection and realise the need to include the body as an integral and indispensable tool in the practice of dance.
If the body is not treated well, in the medium to long term it will not be able to accommodate dance and allow you to practise in good conditions. Like music and singing, the body is also a central element, and yoga, yogalates and Pilates allow you to recharge and maintain your body.
Given that modern life has taken away most of the daily tasks that are important for maintaining physical health (working in the fields, walking, carrying water on your head, sitting on the floor in the evening or on stools, etc.), yoga and Pilates help to compensate for these shortcomings and keep us in shape. Evelyne offers excellent training courses in Cannes.
What are your plans?
To tour Africa and the world with my shows and continue my work of passing on knowledge through various ongoing projects. To continue working on the ‘Bibliothèques des mémoires’ (Memory Libraries) project that my association Yobalema is running in partnership with Périphérie Productions. Continue to build the CAADNA collective (Collectif des artistes africains et diasporas de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine). Continue to support and develop the social and solidarity economy through the women’s community garden ‘Djiguenou Tay’ in Senegal, in Kelle, in the commune of Yenne.
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