Bay Area Dance Week: Congolese Rumba Workshop with Byb Bibene & Chris Babingui

For the 18th annual Bay Area Dance Week, dancers Byb Bibene and Chris Babingui offer a special class, the Rumba Congo. The Congolese rumba (not related to Cuban rumba) is a social dance that is very prominent throughout the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Every bar and club offers a selection of rumba music en vogue or in retro. The music is soft, slow, lyrical, and intimate. With variations in music and body rhythms, the dance is performed between couples. This is not a fitness dance. Couples can wear everyday attire, including jeans!

Byb Chanel Bibene is a choreographer and performer working in theater and contemporary dance. His own technical and aesthetic sensibility is rooted in the culture and dances of his country of origin, the Republic of Congo. He has toured the world and performed internationally with companies and choreographers from Africa, England, France and the USA. Artistic Director of Kiandanda Dance Theater, Bibene launched Mbongui Square, a multidisciplinary arts event that gathers artists from the Bay Area and around the world. Outside of his professional careers of theater and dance, Bibene holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics/Finance and has a passion for writing. He is pursuing his MFA in Dance at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Chris Babingui was born in Enyelle, Congo. At the age of five, he learned the ndombolo and other traditional dances of Congo through the imitation of his elders. After completing his secondary education in 2006, Babingui began his artistic career in hip-hop with the group Boom Danger de Massamba Flash. He has since toured internationally in Africa and Europe. In 2012, Chris participated in Gregory Makoma and Florent Mahoukou’s creation of a piece titled Wake Up. His other works include the choreography for Nibo Nabo (2014) and a collaboration with Zora Snak on The News Territories (2015).

About Bay Area Dance Week:
Presented by Dancers’ Group, Bay Area Dance Week is a 10-day celebration of dance featuring hundreds of free classes, performances, open rehearsals, lecture demonstrations, and the return of the wildly popular Kick-Off at Union Square Park, SF.

The Bay Area has one of the largest, most active and thriving dance communities in the country. BADW invites participants and volunteers to celebrate dance, offering hundreds of free events representing the diversity of dance forms practiced in the region. From established company programs to one-time events, BADW provides an opportunity for dance-lovers of all ages and experience-levels to take a grand tour of the many movement styles, including Argentine tango, classical Indian, jazz, hip hop, ballet, traditional hula, fire dance, Samba, modern, Chinese classical, belly dance, aerial dance, West African, contact improvisation, and more.

Admission: Free. Workshop at 10:00am. All ages welcome.

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