This video is the result of a 10 day residency with dancers from the National Ballet Djoliba in Conakry Guinea. The length of the work is 25 minutes and it is a work in progress we hope to continue. Funding is pending.

Within the framework of cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Guinea, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Conakry invited American Cultural Envoy Esther Baker-Tarpaga a Los Angeles based dancer and choreographer. During her residency in Guinea, Mrs. Baker-Tarpaga worked with the dancers of the National Ballet of Guinea Ballet Djoliba to integrate their past experience and training with new approaches to dance. At the culmination of the workshop, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Conakry organized a one night only performance of “Danse Guinéo-Américaine,” a result of exchanges between artists of different styles and backgrounds at the Centre Culturel Franco-Guinéen the 27th of April 2007 at 8:00 pm.