Mouhamadou Ba Tounkara

Mouhamadou Ba Tounkara, who hails from Saint Louis, Senegal, and is the son of popular TV comedian Badou Meune Lep, was introduced to the martial arts at the age of three. A black belt in karate, he was twice champion of Senegal in this discipline, in the benjamin and minime categories. In 2007, he turned to urban dance, taking part in numerous battles. In 2018, he turned professional, training in cultural project management and administration and joining the Saint Louis Légendaire company, which finished runner-up in the Talents d’or Sénégal 2019 competition. In December 2019, he took part in a creative residency at the Institut Français de Saint-Louis for the show L’Oiseau a perdu ses plumes, in collaboration with Senegalese choreographer Hardo Ka. The piece premiered on January 9, 2020, before touring Burkina Faso in 2021 at the Festival International de Danse de Ouagadougou (FIDO) and the In Out Festival in Bobo Dioulasso. Tounkara continues his training (workshops with Marcel Gbeffa, Mélodie Joinville, Maud Chabrol at the Connexion#2 festival in Cotonou, Benin) and takes part in Brèche, by French director and choreographer Sébastien Amblard. In May 2023, he was awarded a six-month Culture Lab program by the Institut Français de Saint Louis and Zhu-culture. He then worked on the creation of his first solo Balles perdues, for which he then obtained a second artistic residency during Festival Connexion#3, at the Centre Chorégraphique Multicorps – Marcel Gbeffa, Cotonou (Benin), after having participated with the Compagnie Saint-Louis Légendaire in the Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Lomé, Togo, in November 2023. 

Source : Artist biography.