SINANDJA Dakonyéme is better known as Alain SINANDJA, a Togolese dancer-choreographer and teacher residing in Japan, who graduated in traditional and contemporary African dance at the Ecole Des Sables. Living in Japan, he has created six dance pieces and joined other choreographers’ works, such as: Kota Yamazaki, Oka Toshiko, Zan Yamashita, and Yu Shimomura, to name a few. Currently, he has been participating in Kobe city and Dance box organisation Arts program as well. Alain is the director and founder of the company Arts For All created in 2015, and the Happy African Contemporary Festival (HACF) in Japan in 2018. Living in Japan, he is passionate about traditional Japanese dances like TURAMAI and BHUTTO. He gives workshops in cities of Japan such as: Kobe, Osaka, Hiroshima and Tokyo.

Website: https://www.sinandja2005.com/

Follow Alain on Instagram @alainsinandja

EXCHANGE #4
In conversation with Alain Sinandja (Kobe, Japan)
Recorded on April 15, 2021

This is an edited version of Joanna and Alain’s hour and a half conversation and includes topics such as: performing together in Kota Yamazaki's work, how to make things grow, continuing to learn and push yourself no matter where you are, and dance as a medium for speaking up about things that may be hard to say only in words.

*To turn closed captioning on or off, click on the CC icon in the bottom right corner of the video.

Below is the raw movement exchange relayed from Stuart to Alain. You will see Stuart doing his original movement and then you will see both of them doing Stuart’s movement, which Alain learned. Alain will add onto this and that movement will be passed onto Björn Säfsten in Stockholm, Sweden.

Below is the raw movement exchange relayed from Alain to Björn. You will see Alain doing his original movement and then you will see both of them doing Alain’s movement, which Björn learned. Björn will add onto this and that movement will be passed onto Megumi Kokuba in Toronto, Canada.

Photos by Junpei Iwamoto

This project is commissioned in part by the American Dance Festival (ADF).

Logo design by Chris Cherry