Since his first footwork nearly thirty years ago, Ousmane Sy has worked to translate his fascination with the orchestrated movement of a soccer team into dance. His artistic world, occupying various fields, is made up of step-overs, lunges between the dance floor and the stage, and the irrepressible desire to overcome oneself through the group.
One foot in the club, the other in battle: Ousmane Sy, nicknamed “Babson,” stakes his belonging to house dance between these two spaces of expression, becoming one of its major proponents in France. With the “Battle of the Year,” won in 2001 with his crew the “Wanted Posse,” he brought the “French touch” to the forefront of the international scene by transposing androgynous gestures inspired by New York nightclubs into the heart of the contest. Extending far beyond the boundaries of the Marshall Plan, his dance practice has gradually turned to the hybrid histories and African lineages of house rhythms. The result was “Afro House Spirit,” a contemporary dance style marked by the heritage of traditional African and Caribbean dances.
The driving force behind All 4 House, Ousmane Sy endeavors to harmonize, through the mise-en-scène of a multi-act performance, the individual pathways of the female dancers from the group Paradox-Sal, whom he has trained in house dance for years. Queen Blood (2019) and One Shot (2021) were born from this approach: two “corps de ballets” alternating between group choreographies and expressive solos for an encounter of styles in the joyful spirit of confrontation. Ousmane Sy’s aesthetic exploration is influenced as much by the mass as by the freestyle spirit of hip hop. He strongly believes that identity must serve entity.
