Stages in Transition

Abstract

Les Ballets Africains, the first globally touring African performance company, debuted in the United States as a private Paris-based troupe in 1959 and toured again in 1960 as National Ballet of the newly independent Republic of Guinea. Although rarely considered in scholarship, Les Ballets Africains’ history during these years—encompassing the company’s first U.S. appearances and reflecting the influence of its founder, Fodéba Keita—are significant in relation to 20th-century trajectories of staged African dance, convergences between African and American performing arts practices and liberation struggles, and cultural transformations in Guinea under president Sékou Touré.