Naugatuck Valley Community College Honored by Announcement of its Fourth Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence
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The announcement marks the fourth Fulbright scholar to teach at NVCC. Three previous Fulbright scholars specializing in art, music and literature have enriched the programs of NVCC since 2012. The 2018-19 academic year will bring a scholar-in-residence from Burkina Faso, West Africa who will specialize in African dance.
International performer Aguibo Bougobali Sanou will teach dance classes at the College, collaborate with grant partners the Waterbury Arts Magnet School and Capital Community College in Hartford, and hold dance-related community activities. The responsibilities of the scholar will include teaching and working with our educational partners in this grant to complement their dance programs.
The Fulbright scholar, Aguibou Bougobali Sanou, was born in 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.
He started African and modern dance at a young age. 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. He and his family are expected to arrive in August. NVCC is proud to call Sanou one of our faculty for the upcoming academic year.
