Bintou Dembélé
| Bintou Dembélé | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 30, 1975 |
| Residence | Île-de-France |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | street |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Home town | Brétigny-sur-Orge, Île-de-France, France |
| Former groups | Boogie Breakers, 2Be3, Concept of Art, Mission Impossible, Aktuel force, Collectif Mouv’, Ladyside, Ykanji, Käfig. |
| Dances | |
Bintou Dembélé is a French Hip Hop dancer who is recognized as one of the pioneer figure of Hip Hop dance in France. After having practiced Hip Hop dance for more than 30 years, Bintou Dembélé is now also a choreographer and the artistic director of her dance compagny Rualité. Her work especially focuses on the issues of identity and memory, racism, feminism and post colonial histories in France.
Bintou Dembélé was born in the suburbs of Paris in 1975 to a family who emigrated to France after Sub Saharan Africa’s decolonization. Her interest in Hip Hop dance was in part influenced by the show H.I.P. H.O.P. on the French TV channel TF1. Around 1985, Dembélé and friends created the dance group Boogie Breakers and started dancing collectively in their neighborhood’s public spaces. She then joined the group Concept of Art, created by Steevy Gustave, which encouraged marginalized youth in the Parisian banlieues (in Paris' marginalized suburbs) to adopt Hip Hop dance as a way of fighting against delinquency. While in middle school, Dembélé also joined the dance groups 2Be3 (To Be Free), Mission Impossible and Aktuel Force in which she diversified her Hip Hop dancing by learning House Dance, New Style, Break Dancing... etc. With her dance teams, she started dancing in famous Parisian spots such as in the , the Place du Trocadéro-et-du-11-Novembre, the Parvis Notre-Dame - place Jean-Paul-II and the . She also participated in state-organized and/or state-sponsored Hip Hop festivals and battles such as the Rencontres Nationales de Danse Urbaines (National Meetings of Urban Dances) at the Villette (Paris) for instance. During the first years of the very popular rise of the Hip Hop culture in France, Dembélé also performed in famous concerts, clubs and discotheques including Le Palace (Paris), le Bataclan or Le Divan du Monde.
Dembélé's professional career began in 1996 when she was recruited by the Théâtre Contemporain de la Danse de Paris (TCD) as a professional dancer. In 1997, she joined the dance group the Collectif Mouv’ where she created her first show entitled Et si…! (What if...!) with the break dancer Rabah Mahfoufi. While dancing for the Collectif Mouv', Dembélé also collaborated with the French Jazz saxophonist Julien Lourau and with the musical organization the Groove Gang to create a show entitled Come fly with us. At the same time she also co-founded the dance group Ykanji and the female group dance Ladyside. Her participation in French popular TV shows such as or Hit Machine enabled Dembélé to meet French rappers and dancers such as MC Solaar and . In 1998, she danced for MC Solaar's concert in l'Olympia (Paris) in a show choreographed by Max-Laure Bourjolly and Bambi Cruz.
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