Careers in the Arts Toolkit Artist Profile: Sidiki Conde

 

Sidiki Conde is a black man in his thirties. In this photo he is smiling straight at the camera, balancing on his hands holding himself up with his legs crossed at his sides. He is wearing red, yellow, pink and brown striped frilly cloth on his right arm where his elbow is, and one on his left but it is a light blue. He is wearing a hat-like ornament with shells on his head which also crisscrosses across his bare chest. He wears red shorts, and two wrist bands on each wrist.

Photo by Deborah Ross

Dancer, Musician

New York, NY

At the age of 14, Sidiki Conde lost the use of his legs as the result of polio. In his village in Guinea, West Africa, disabled people commonly were banished from their homes in order to not bring shame or bad luck upon their family, so he was sent to his grandfather's village deep in the forest. Knowing that he would not be able to participate in his village’s traditional coming-of-age ceremony if he could not dance, Conde reconstructed the traditional steps using his hands instead of his feet. He became so adept that he was able to travel to the capital city, Conakry, and form Message de Espair, an orchestra of artists with disabilities he recruited from the city's streets. 

In 1987, he was asked to join the prestigious troupe Les Merveilles de Guinea, and he composed and directed musical arrangements for them as well as serving as director of choreography. The troupe’s work took him to the United States in 1998. “In America, I was not just a disabled person in a wheelchair,” he said. “It was my skills as a musician and dancer, and my ability to connect with others that enabled me to build bridges with others and transform the way they see me.”

In 1999, Conde formed his company, Tokounou All Ability African Dance, which uses African dance and music to integrate people with disabilities into an artistic community with the non-disabled. In addition, he has made a special effort to teach workshops for VSA and to instruct other young people with challenges in life.  

in 2007, Conde was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

“When I sing and dance, I am a bright star on the stage, not a dark figure in a wheelchair,” he said. “When I teach, I help my students transform themselves, too. They become happy, free, lighter, and more confident. Their joy comes back to me, and assures me that my life has one purpose: to dance and teach.”

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"Sidiki Conde: You Don't Need Feet to Dance" (American Artscape, 2015 No. 1)