When Birds Refused to Fly

Photo courtesy of Olivier Tarpaga

OLIVIER TARPAGA is artistic director of Nomad Express International MultiArts Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; founder and artistic director of the internationally-acclaimed Dafra Drum and Dafra Kura Band; and co-founder of Baker + Tarpaga Dance Project. He danced with David Rousseve/Reality from 2006 to 2009. In 2008, Tarpaga was commissioned by Zig Zag Ballet to choreograph Visage at the Rich Forum Stanford Center for the Arts in Connecticut. He is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Dance of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has taught in the Program in Dance at Princeton University, the School of Music of The Ohio State University, the Department of Drama and Dance at Kenyon College, Ohio, the Department of Dance at Denison University, Ohio, the University of Iowa, and the World Arts and Cultures Department at University of California Los Angeles. Tarpaga has performed and taught dance in more than 50 countries throughout Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. He performed as part of the Festival of the Arts that opened the Lewis Arts complex in October 2017.

“Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project Takes Flight,” written by Lisa Jo Sagolla for US1, October 9, 2019.

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