Souleymane ‘Solo’ Badolo is a Brooklyn-based choreographer and dancer born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He started his professional career as a dancer for the DAMA, a traditional African dance company. In 1993, he founded his own Burkina Faso-based troupe, Kongo Ba Téria, which fuses traditional African dances with western contemporary dance. Mr. Badolo has danced with world-renowned contemporary African dance company Salia ni Seydou, worked with French choreographers Elsa Wolliaston and Mathilde Monnier, and performed with the National Ballet of Burkina. He and Kongo Ba Téria are featured in the widely-screened film Movement (R)evolution Africa which documents the continent’s emergent experimental dance scene. Since moving to New York in 2009, Badolo has created a number of projects commissioned and presented by Danspace, New York Live Arts, Dance New Amsterdam, Harlem Stage, 92Y, the Museum of Art & Design, and the sprawling River to River Festival (R2R). He has collaborated with nora chipaumire, Ralph Lemon, Reggie Wilson, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women. He was the Harkness Foundation Artist-in-Residence at BAM Fisher and was commissioned by BAM to create Yimbégré, an evening-length work for presentation in the 2015 Next Wave Festival. Yimbégré will be presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, August 24-28, 2016. He is teaching at Bennington in spring 2016.

COURSES TAUGHT:
Souleymane Badolo Repertory: A New Voice in African Dance

LINKS:
Time Out NY / Souleymane Badolo Talks Politics, Faith and His New Dance Work Yimbégré
New York Times / In Badolo's Yimbégré, Men Jesting and Ranting
New York Times / Souleymane Badolo at The River to River Festival
Financial Times / James Brown: Get on The Good Foot
New York Times / The Apollo Presents James Brown: Get on The Good Foot