Olivier Tarpaga is a choreographer, dancer, musician and storyteller originally from Burkina Faso. At the age of fourteen he was selected as an actor and dancer for Burkina Faso’s acclaimed company Le Bourgeon du Burkina, which performed at numerous festivals and theaters throughout Africa, Europe, and South America. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project (2004) with Esther Baker-Tarpaga, co-founder of internationally acclaimed Burkina Faso’s Compagnie TA (2000) with Auguste Ouédraogo and Wilfried Souly and founder of Dafra Drum and Dance Ensemble (1995). He has collaborated with choreographers such as David Rousseve, Christian Canciani, Germaine Acogny, Ousseni Sako, Brett Raphael and Lacina Coulibaly. He has also collaborated as a musician with recording artists Poe Ball, Laura Wolfe, Amadou Kienou, Keba Cissoko, Sylvain Leroux, Martin Fernandez, George Ouedraogo and Les Merveilles de Guinée. Olivier is a dance faculty at UCLA’s World Arts & Cultures Department where he is developing a teaching method called “Movement Transformation Technique.” Over the past ten years (1997-2007) he choreographed thirteen major dance pieces that toured in theaters and festivals in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America. His works are dedicated to social issues such as immigration, politics, injustice and colonization. He is a recipient of the Durfee Foundation ARC Grant and has performed and taught dance and drumming since 1995 in seventeen countries on five continents. He has studied dance with Companie Salia Ni Seydou, Alassane Congo, Mathilde Monnier, Robert Seifred and Nana Nilson. From 1996-1999, he performed as a dancer in Salia Sanou’s choreographic creations, “Le Tourbillon” and “La Reine Des Bergés”, both of which won the national grand prix for choreography. He is currently a company member of David Rousseve/REALITY and he teaches West African dance for the Los Angeles Music Center and LAUSD.
