Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté
Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté is an Ivorian dancer, choreographer and designer, born in Korhogo. From the age of 14 ,he ensured his own subsistence thanks to his trade as a car mechanic. It was only at the age of 22 that he devoted himself fully to his passion, dance. Practicing traditional, urban and modern jazz dances, he refined his training in contemporary dance in 2004 during the Choreographic Meetings of Ouagadougou – Dialogues de Corps, initiated by Salia Sanou and Seydou Boro, in Burkina Faso. His meeting with the latter two as well as with Mathilde Monnier and Pierre Doussaint marked him deeply. He became an interpreter for the Klozaï, Djiguiya and Georges Momboye companies, for which he became the assistant. In 2009, he was selected by Frenchman Kamel Ouali who choreographed the opening ceremony of the Pan-African Festival in Algiers. Meanwhile, in 2008, he founded the company Jasp with Roméo Bron Bi Tra and Anselme Mazou, and created a studio in Abidjan, in the Deux Plateaux district. He trains nearly 300 dancers from the Cebafrica troupe in Côte d’Ivoire and signs the choreographies of clips for gospel singers. The political crisis that hit Côte d’Ivoire following the presidential elections at the end of 2010 put an abrupt end to its activities. At the beginning of April 2011, while the civil war was raging and the country suffered an economic and monetary blockage, he left for Benin, where he was to go a few months later, at the invitation of a major gospel festival. During this 2-year exile, he created the play Eclipse, performed at the French Institute of Cotonou (2011) and during the Festival “Dansons Maintenant ! (2012). He immersed himself in traditional Beninese and voodoo dances with Koffi Kôkô, and led numerous contemporary dance workshops at the Center Chorégraphique Multicorps and at the Hotel Eldorado. Performer in Andréya Ouamba’s and Awoulath Alougbin’s pieces, he also participates in performances during exhibitions of visual artists organized by the Laboratorio Art Contemporain, and designs the costumes of the Beninese singer Kinzah.
In 2013, he moved to France, Strasbourg, and performed in for Bernardo Montet’s Rework O’More, (2017), for Alfred Alert (2017), and Christiane Emmanuelle (2021).
In 2015, Cie Jasp was renamed ATeKa, from the initials of its creator.
From 2016 to 2019, Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté is an associate artist at Pôle Danse des Ardennes (Sedan). He created the duo Rien à aborder (2018), with Myriam Soulanges (Awarded “Matière Première” by the Grand Studio de Bruxelles of the Festival Les Hivernales-Avignon) and Sucre, An ice cream for a nice crime (2019). In 2017–2018, he is the first winner of the City of Cannes for his call for artistic and cultural education projects. In 2020-2021, he benefits from the DRAC Grand Est structuring aid and is named Golden Knight of Dance in Ivory Coast by the Ivorian Dance Federation Accor’danse in collaboration with the National Center for Arts and of Culture (CNAC) of Côte d’Ivoire. In 2021, he transforms his solo Humming Birds / colibri, created in 2016, into a piece for 15 performers represented at MASA (Marché des Arts du Spectacle d’Abdijan) in March 2022.
Source: ATeka Company website, Interview Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté, by Anne Decoret-Ahiha, May 23, 2022.
