Kiswinsida Olivier Gansaore

Ouagadougou | Montpellier

Holder of a Master’s degree in Choreographic Studies from the Institut Chorégraphique International (CCI) – National Choreographic Center of Montpellier, Kiswinsida Olivier Gansaore is a Burkinabe choreographer whose artistic path spans over a decade of creation, transmission, and social engagement through dance.

A creator of multidisciplinary performances, Kiswinsida comes from the urban dance scene, where he quickly built a strong reputation through award-winning performances, including at the Semaine Nationale de la Culture (SNC), where he received the choreographic creation prize, before joining the three-year professional training program Yeleen Don at CDC La Termitière in Ouagadougou. There, he worked with renowned artists such as Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Herman Diephuis, François Verret, Ildevert Méda, Odile Sankara, Salia Sanou, and Seydou Boro.

He is recognized for his rigor, his commitment to transmission, and his sensitivity in engaging with other artistic disciplines. Since then, he has multiplied artistic collaborations as a choreographer with numerous Burkinabe artists — actors, comedians, filmmakers, stage directors, musicians, and singers.

He has worked as a dancer and assistant with Serge Aimé Coulibaly, as assistant choreographer to Rosalba Torres Guerrero, and as a trainee performer with Josef Nadj on the project Full Moon. He also worked with Régine Chopinot, Phia Ménard, and Aurélie Charon on Avant Toute Chose, a project by the Fondation Hermès at MC93, and has collaborated with visual artists such as Françoise Pétrovitch.

His artistic approach examines contemporary challenges and social realities, using the body as a medium for poetry and dialogue. He co-created projects intertwining choreography, speech, and memory — such as On se dessine un monde — and serves as artistic director of Compagnie Grand Geste, which regularly brings dance into prisons through the project Vague Des Ailes.

Committed to education and transmission, he leads workshops for children, disadvantaged youth, and marginalized communities, including AFROCAV and Afro Dance. He has also created several commissioned works.

He has three solo creations to his name — ARZEKA (2018), REMEMBER ACTE 01 (2021), and REMEMBER ACTE 02 (2025/26) — presented on numerous national and international stages: Germany, France, Senegal, Mali, MASA (Abidjan), the Biennale de la danse in Côte d’Ivoire, Récréâtrales, and Festival Dialogue de Corps.

He has taken part in several professional development programs in West Africa, including the ANKATA Coaching Project and L’Art de l’Enseignement de la Danse.

A complete and committed artist, Kiswinsida Olivier Gansaore embodies a generation of African creators for whom dance is both an art and a legacy, a responsibility and a tool — a means of self-affirmation, resistance, expression, and transformation.