Born in Togo, ANANI DODJI SANOUVI was brought up in Gabon and has lived in Togo and Senegal. Trained by the Professional African Contemporary & Traditional Dance program of L’École des Sables from choreographer Germaine Acogny, in Toubab Dialaw (2002, 2005, and 2009), he attended workshops such as the Ateliers du Monde in Montpellier, France (2001) and in 2005 he was granted the UNESCO-Aschberg bursary. In 2006 Anani became Dance Laureate of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Program, taking up a mentoring year with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at her company “Rosas” and school P.A.R.T.S.

His own work has toured in the UK, USA, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, The Netherlands, Abu Dhabi, Mali, and Senegal, at venues such as DTW, The Place, Frascati, Julidans, Impulstanz, and Kaay Fecc and has been co–produced by The Goethe Institute, Dansmakers, Dansateliers, Brazil Amsterdam Festival, and Julidans Festival.

He has been also deeply involved in developing and teaching his Contemporary Black African dance method “The legs of the Chameleon” for professionals and non-professionals throughout Europe, Brazil, the Middle East, and Africa. Last year Anani started collaborating with the theater group “Nos do Morro” from Rio de Janeiro and is forming the dance group from the Centre Kore, Festival sur le Niger in Mali.

He lives in Amsterdam, where his own company, Maahhoum, is based. Nevertheless since 2009 he has established an association in Togo – with the support of Stichting Doen – for the development of a long-term social cultural project and an Arts Laboratory – “The Tools of the Wisdom” – which aims for the re-education, preservation, deepening, valorisation, and revalorisation of traditional customs.