Africa Simply The Best

Africa SIMPLY THE BEST is a solo pan-African choreographic competition, initiated in 2015 by the ANKATA laboratory in Bobo-Dioulasso. This pan-African cultural event was created in response to the rise of contemporary choreographic creation in Africa. Aware of the growing enthusiasm around this discipline and eager to support young talents, ANKATA has set itself the mission of promoting the excellence and visibility of African creators.
Since 2015, every two years, it has organized the Bobo-Dioulasso PanAfrican Solo Choreographic Competition, "Africa Simply The Best", which brings together African creators from a dozen countries to celebrate excellence and promote the visibility of African creators on an international scale.

The Festival has the objective to: facilitate the international identification of talented artists, to develop transdisciplinary creativity and thus generate emulation that leads to innovative and strong proposals, tonfront other artistic realities and logics by performing internationally, and especially in Europe, to support a creativity deeply rooted in the soil and in the African reality, knowing how to reach and unite the public around themes that truly concern them, to give the public the opportunity and desire to become creators of their own lives through the emotions and reflections aroused by artistic creation.

≈14 performances in the competition, plus an opening and a closing ceremony in Ankata Amphitheatre, BoboDioulasso, Burkina-Faso. The festival offers also Ankata Coaching – mentoring for young artists and professionals in the cultural sector and implements the Africa Simply the Best European tour – an international tour of the three gaining solos within the two years following the competition.

The African-European coordination & production team is formed by Ankata (Bobo-Dioulasso) and Faso Danse Théâtre (Brussels).