Caro Diallo

He taught dance to various ballet troupes in Dakar until, in 1993, he founded Black Soofa. He has performed in the United States, Spain, Italy and in Switzerland. Diallo lives in Switzerland, teaching regularly in Zurich, Bern and Chiasso. Each winter he returns to Senegal to teach at his dance camp in Abene and to work and perform with Black Soofa.

Diallo has the gift of inspiring his students and captivating them with his energy and with the finesse and elegance of his dancing. In a warm-up students rave about, he provides an entire vocabulary of African movements. An accomplished teacher, he systematically builds up phrase after phrase of the dance, day after day, until students find themselves actually performing the entire choreography.

Diallo began a collaboration with Geryunant through a series of events in the Brattleboro, Vermont area in summer 2002. That collaboration continued with a sabuhallá healing workshop that began at the dance camp in 2004.

In Senegal later in 2002, Diallo and Gena Corea of Geryunant prepared for the sabuhallá workshop by seeking out traditional healers who use sound, vibration and movement in their practices. They found them in Ziguinchor, Diallo’s home city. Diallo and Corea participated in a ritual the healers performed. This gallery of photos shows that healing ritual. The next year, they searched for traditional healers in the small villages lying outside Ziguinchor. One of these, Awa Bodian Diedhiou, now participates in the sabuhalla workshops. For details, see the workshop description.

Visit Caro's home page, and the Gallery of photos of the healing ritual