Engagement Féminin: L’Équilibre and Contemporary Dance in West Africa

This article discusses the interrelationship between contemporary dance aesthetics and social change developed in the piece Dans Un S’Y Mettre by Burkinabe choreographers Auguste Ouédraogo and Bienvenue Bazié, as well as their larger project, Engagement Féminin, which aims to foster a new generation of professional female dancers/choreographers in West Africa. She proposes that Dans Un S’Y Mettre and Engagement Féminin create a gender politics of their own devising, based in mutual support and articulated through women’s dancing bodies.