For the past three decades, West African dancer Diádié Bathily has forged a path to elevate his craft and culture in the United States. Last week, his journey brought him to the Academy Awards, where he danced during the live performance of Sinners’ “I Lied To You.”
In the film, “I Lied To You” highlights the spiritual power and resistance of African dance in the face of racial oppression. One of only two live musical performances during the Academy Awards, the Sinners performance replicated the multicultural, generation-spanning, surreal musical sequence from the film on the Dolby Theatre stage. Bathily brought Zaouli, a traditional masked dance from his home country of Ivory Coast, to the national stage.
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“My whole country was proud that [Zaouli] was on national TV. I got a call from the first lady of Ivory Coast thanking me for presenting Zaouli,” Bathily says.
Bathily watched Sinners several times and was eager to bring his training and an authentic perspective to present Zaouli. After going back and forth with the choreographers, Bathily wore a traditional Zaouli mask during the performance. He is seen entering the stage around the 2:35 mark in the performance.
Bathily faced an arduous road leading up to his momentous performance at the Oscars. Watching dance gatherings in a familial village sparked an early interest in dance, which he continued through self-training. “I grew up training myself by hiding and watching some of the Europeans who were teaching different dance classes in Africa,” he says. He tried to mimic their form and rhythm to learn dance.
Bathily also taught dance classes, to local children and to Europeans, to help his parents pay bills and educate his siblings. At the time, Bathily recalls watching Ivorian choreographer, Marie Rose Guiraud, on television, and hoping to train under her one day.
Over the years of teaching and learning in Ivory Coast, Bathily met Joseph Hellweg, an anthropologist then affiliated with the University of Missouri-St. Louis. After observing Bathily’s dance, Hellweg arranged for him to come to St. Louis as a visiting artist in 1998.
Bathily’s early years in the United States were turbulent. He rented VHS tapes and attended evening and night classes to learn English while working around the clock for financial security and immigration status. With Hellweg’s help, Bathily trained for six months at Guirad’s company, achieving his childhood dream.
Over the years, Bathily performed at occasions and venues ranging from cultural festivals to elementary school stages. “Anywhere I could claim to be seeds for African dance education,” he says. “Because that’s exactly [how] African dance is used in Africa. It’s part of life. You cannot separate it.”
As he saw people gain interest in the art, he started Afriky Lolo, a nonprofit to educate and perform West African dances. Bathily believes performing Zaouli is a window for people to learn about the history of the continent, the diversity of its 54 countries, and to adapt it to create new dance forms. From July 17-19, Afriky Lolo will present their 20th Sundiata event, featuring two shows and a day of dance workshops, at Touhill Performing Arts Center.
The opportunity to perform for Sinners’ musical accompaniment was the largest stage yet on which he’s gotten to share his art. Bathily’s mentor guided him through the application process, of which he was initially skeptical. “Sometimes, I don’t want to go somewhere because I feel like this is not my spot to be. I’ve been really casual, and a lot of artists like [me] are not up there,” he says. But his co-dancers and mentors encouraged him to aim high.
“It’s not just you. It’s bigger than you, what you are doing,” he recalls a mentor telling him.
When he got the call that he’d been selected, Bathily flew to Los Angeles. The training process was difficult, taking up several hours each day, sometimes seven days a week. In a crew of dancers from across the country, Bathily knew he was bringing a unique background and form to the stage. “I know I have an accent. I know I have a different costume,” he says. “I [had] to know every single thing, how to move on stage.” In his mind, there was no room for error.
It was important to Bathily to bring the traditional Zaouli mask to the Oscars stage, but the training process for it was difficult. The narrow eye slits paired with the stage lighting made it nearly impossible to see. “I had to close my eyes, tie my hair, and dance: zigzag, zigzag. I would bump into the wall, but I did develop the feel [of] how to go,” he says of his rehearsals.
Watching his years of training come to life on stage felt unreal. “Sitting in the living room in Africa, I never imagined in my life that I would be standing on that stage, in front of the people I used to watch on TV,” he says.
The performance was no ordinary stepping stone in his career. It was a culmination of his decades of work, and the chance to highlight his country’s dance form to an international audience. After the performance, Bathily received notes of appreciation from African dance teachers from across the globe, including the United States, Africa, Australia, and Europe.
Bathily dreams of bringing together choreographers and dancers from the United States and Ivory Coast one day to adapt and film the wedding dance sequence from the 1988 film Coming to America, which features the Ivory Coast.
“I want to bridge the two continents,” he says. “Zaouli is the symbol that brought me here. The symbol of my high school in Africa is Zaouli. Zaouli brought me on the stage.” Bathily strives to continue claiming space for authentic representations of his home country.
“When I was on that stage, I had tears in my eyes,” he says. “It’s almost like magic. I don’t know how I did it. And I’m still going. I’m not done yet.”
