Lacina Coulibaly

Raised in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Lacina Coulibaly trained in West African dance and European contemporary dance, dancing with the Ballet National du Burkina Faso, Compagnie Salia Nï Seydou, and Irène Tassambedo, before co-founding Kongo Ba Teria with Souleymane Badolo. Reshaping traditional values to speak to present day concerns, Kongo BaTeria is a leading promoter of contemporary dance in West Africa. From 1996-2000, Compagnie Kongo Ba Téria performed on many African stages in countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Cameroon. Since 2000, the company has toured throughout Europe to France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, and Germany. Coulibaly and Badolo’s creations have won international awards, including the Pan-African competition SANGA. Coulibaly’s recent work includes a solo, which he has presented at Cornell, NYU and Stonybrook University, among other venues, and guest appearances with internationally known Faso Dance Theatre. Coulibaly is a featured artist in the documentary Movement (R)evolution Africa, which documents the emergent experimental African dance scene. His recent work includes an ongoing, multi-sited research collaboration with Emily Coates, leading to the creation of a work-in-progress duet titled “Ici Ou Ailleurs.” He has taught at the University of Florida and Brown University, and is currently on faculty at Yale.