[3] The school, once located where the Court of Cassation in Dakar is currently housed,[4] was founded in 1977 by Leopolod Sédar Senghor and Maurice Béjart[5] and funded by Senegal and Belgium, with support from UNESCO.
[6] Germaine Acogny, a Senegalese dancer and choreographer originally from Benin, who is probably the best-known and most influential forerunner of contemporary dance in the West-African region,[6] was appointed director of the school from its opening.
[8] Acogny describes Mudra Afrique as “the sacred grove of modern time”, a place where Senghor’s Pan-African ambitions could live on in this space, which provided a platform for dancers from all over the continent and further afield to come to work, meet other artists, and be inspired.
[11] By contrast with Mudra Afrique, however, funding for this school did not come from African states but from French and European agencies, private charities in Europe and North America, and from fee-paying students from outside Africa.
Since the foundation of Mudra Afrique in 1977, however, France and other European countries have been financing the choreographic arts in Africa via training, workshops, and space, using cultural agencies attached to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The new “choreographic movement” born out of transnational African collaboration has become more and more male-dominated with regards to international visibility, which is contrasted against the important role played by women such as Germaine Acogny and Irène Tassembedo, who are considered to be among the avant-garde of contemporary dance in Africa.