African Contemporary (AFROFUSION)
with Sammy Gian,
every Saturday 12:00-13:30
“My class is built on warm up and technique fusion of Martha Graham and Lester Horton mixed with African vocabulary, but works on different balance and gravity of the body. The use of rhythm is a vital characteristic. A skillful dancer might express several different rhythms with each of several different parts of the body. I carry vital elements of the traditional African dances as the symbolic representation of the culture and history.”
My quest was always that I wanted more and the more I got exposed the more it blew up my mind and body to move in straight lines and to just let the body parts shake vigorously in a manner of letting loose in what I call freedom of the body. Overtime by developing and examining different ways of approaching dance and researching movement I encourage the students to be creative and develop their own personal way of movement.”
Dance/movement for me is an endless research producing a healing effect to the body and mind . There is no holding back, just move to rhythm and we all have it. Sammy Gian is a Kenyan dance instructor and choreographer with a strong background and experience in teaching and in facilitating performances. His formal education started in performing arts in MID (Moving into Dance Mophatong) in South Africa, but his professional experience as a choreographer, performer and teacher runs over 15 years in various African (Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique) and European countries (Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Greece). In his career he was one of the main choreographers and instructors in the organisation Sarakasi Trust in Nairobi, Kenya and in the academic program in the Pedagogical University of Maputo, in Mozambique. Since then, he has participated in various festivals around the world and he creates his own productions. His dance identity has different dynamics based on the contemporary dance techniques of Martha Graham and Lester Horton mixed with African and acrobatic elements. Nevertheless, his dance styles continue to a big variety of hip hop, house, modern, urban jazz and afro fusion. Since 2016, he has lived in Athens, Greece, where he teaches afrofusion on a weekly basis at the Professional Dance School, Aktina, as well as in dance studios such as DANCCE and Dancevacuum. He also co-ordinates seminars with different themes in different dance schools. Since July 2017, he has formed the Twende Dance Project, a modern dance center and meeting point for professional and amateur dancers and a roof for his dance company. In 2018 and 2019 participates in the Thessaloniki Swing Festival as an African Dance teacher and as a performer and co-organizes the African-American Jazz Dance Project, where he studies African roots in jazz dances. In 2022, he participates with his solo performance in the International Peloponnisos Doc Festival in Kalamata and he creates the dance production “Si Londe” for children based on the book of Miltos Pistof.
Information & participations: info@anasa.org.gr
*registration required