Irène Tassembédo, a renowned figure in modern African choreography, was a student at the École Mudra-Afrique in Dakar under the tutelage of Maurice Béjart. Since the early 1980s, she has been based in Europe, where she has developed an original and innovative choreographic work that combines contemporary dance and African dance, firmly rooted in the present, while redefining the language of dance.
With an openness to various dance techniques and other disciplines in the performing arts, Irène Tassembédo has had a multidisciplinary career as a choreographer, dance teacher, and talented actress in theater, film, and television. In 1988, she founded the Ébène Company, with which she has toured numerous countries to present her original and groundbreaking choreographic work.
In 2000, she received the SACD Award for Choreography in France. After 30 years of an international career, Irène Tassembédo returned to her native Burkina Faso in 2007, bringing with her a wealth of professional experience she wanted to share with African dancers, choreographers, and other artists.
While continuing to create powerful and inspired choreographic work with her company, now renamed Compagnie Irène Tassembédo, she is currently working on developing innovative and structuring cultural projects in her country and across the continent.
One such project is the International Dance School Irène Tassembédo (EDIT),established in October 2009 in Ouagadougou, which aims to provide a high-level professional dance training program on the African continent and create an international diploma in African dance.
