MFA in Dance Candidate Explores Living Archives in Benin
Tristian Griffin spent his summer in Benin, working with the Trans d'union dance company. (Photo courtesy Tristian Griffin).
This summer, MFA in Dance candidate Tristian Griffin traveled to Benin, West Africa, with support from Duke's Dance Program and the Global Affairs Research Fund. He stayed in Cotonou for one month working with Marcel Gbeffa’s Centre Choregraphique Multicorps student dance company, Trans d’union.
Griffin pursued his thesis research that explores the body and the land as living archives through which cultural transmission and transgenerational inheritance can be accessed. Amid dance, meals, laughter, site visits and heartfelt conversations with Marcel, the dancers, and local Beninoise residents, Griffin found himself fully immersed in the experience — discovering far more than he ever expected.
“Traveling to Africa has been a lifelong dream, and I am profoundly grateful for the experience, which has not only enriched my research but will also greatly inform my upcoming thesis.”
