Thibault Carron
Aly Keita is a multidisciplinary artist from Guinea. At the age of 13, he began his training at the Centre d’art acrobatique Keita Fodeba in Conakry, where he studied circus arts, dance, and music. In 2016, he took part in a cultural exchange between Guinean and Inuit circus artists from Nunavut, a project that led to the documentary Circus Without Borders. After collaborating with several companies, Aly founded and now directs Kira Arts, dedicated to original creation. He has since developed three major works: Djata: Conversations du Manden (first in a short version, then expanded), Altération, and Nimba. Aly is also actively involved in cultural mediation, notably through the school program of Place des Arts, and works as an artist facilitator in the recreational therapy programs of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
JURY NOTES
Multidisciplinary artist and founder of the Kira Arts company, Aly Keita embodies a choreographic vision deeply rooted in Guinean traditions, which he boldly reinvents through contemporary dance, music, and circus arts. In 2024–2025, his works Djata, Altération, and Nimba toured Montreal, St. Sauveur, Toronto, Halifax, and Conakry, Guinea, building bridges between cultures, disciplines, and generations. These creations, bringing together some thirty artists from diverse backgrounds, have confirmed Kira Arts as a vibrant creative space deeply rooted in the community.
Beyond the stage, the company is remarkably committed to community outreach, offering workshops in schools, cultural mediation projects, and activities in long-term care facilities, initiatives that make dance a language of transmission and dialogue accessible to all. Aly Keita's work also resonates at universities or in meetings with the general public, at which he promotes experiential knowledge and decolonial perspectives on artistic creation. Thanks to the originality of the artistic approach of its founder and its deeply humanistic outlook, Kira Arts contributes in an exemplary way to the diversity of dance practices and fully reflects the spirit of the Prix Envol.
Rébecca Goupil
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