The Newtown Labor Day parade, which primarily travels down Newtown’s quaint Main Street is a tradition 56 years in the making and a good time was had by all. Sanou is teaching dance classes at the College, will collaborate with grant partners the Waterbury Arts Magnet School and Capital Community College in Hartford, and hold dance-related community activities. The responsibilities of his appointment will include teaching and working with NVCC’s educational partners in this grant to complement their dance programs.

Sanou, who started African and modern dance at a young age, was born into a large family of artists living in Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast, Africa. He is founder and choreographer of the Tamadia Dance Company in Bobo-Dioulasso, and several regional collaborative projects with companies based in Mali, Senegal, and Niger. He also founded and directed the IN-OUT Dance Festival in 2014 which annually has attracted more than 80,000 international participants.

In 2008, strongly influenced by the works of prominent choreographers from the Global South, Salia Sanou and Akram Khan, he started developing a very personal approach of contemporary dance, mixing traditional Mandinka and contemporary dance repertoires, storytelling and strong elements of animism and spirituality. He actively worked to give African contemporary dance a strong identity and legitimacy in the global art world. His works have been shown in Burkina Faso, Morocco, Benin, Senegal, Mali, France and Korea.

Known as “Bougobali,” he was a semi-finalist in 2016 of “Africa’s Got Talent.” The dancer and musician speaks four languages and is experienced in theater, television, and storytelling. NVCC is proud to call Sanou one of its faculty for the upcoming academic year.