Compagnie Jant-Bi was created in 1998 with dancers who had participated in the first professional workshop of the International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dancers, L’Ecole des Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, under the artistic direction of Germaine Acogny. Acogny is Senegalese and French in origin and founded her first dance studio in Dakar in 1968. Between 1977 and 1982, she was the director of Mudra Afrique (Dakar), created by Maurice Béjart. She then moved to Brussels to work with Maurice Béjart’s company and later to France before returning to Senegal in 1995. In 2007 Acogny and co-choreographer Kota Yamazaki were recognized with a New York Dance & Performance Award (A BESSIE) for their creation, Fagaala, a reflection on the Rwandan genocide.