Diadie Bathily brought West African dance to St. Louis — and took it to the Oscars stage

By STL Public Radio

Last month, the phrase “Oscar buzz” took on a different meaning for dancer and choreographer Diadie Bathily. During the stage re-creation of “I Lied to You,” one of the most discussed scenes from the widely acclaimed film “Sinners,” Bathily — who founded the dance company Afriky Lolo in 2006 in St. Louis — represented Ivory Coast culture by showcasing Zaouli dance alongside famed ballerina Misty Copeland.

athily’s moment in the spotlight brought great pride to his fellow St. Louisans and Ivorians. He told “St. Louis on the Air” that while he’s glad to introduce audiences and his students to West African dance traditions, he’s really building upon the education that choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham started.

“[Katherine Dunham] brought a lot of dancers from West Africa here [to] St. Louis and they spread all around the U.S.,” he said. “Coming to St. Louis at that time, some people were already trained in dances from Senegal and Guinea, but not Ivory Coast. There are similarities between those cultures and dances, so that [made it] much easier for me to take the torch and keep on planting the seeds of rhythm and dance.”

Bathily has performed Zaouli dance since he was a child growing up in Ivory Coast. The dance is traditionally done by men at celebrations and must be paired with a Zaouli mask. Bathily danced in one of his own masks on the Oscars stage. The energy he displayed came from his decades of training and experience.

“For Zaouli dance, you have to have very strong legs. Once your legs are moving, they are moving so fast you feel like your body is floating,” he explained. “The hands speak first, then translates to the feet … and the feet are going so fast you can’t even identify how fast we’re going.” Read all about it here