Co-director of the Center chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne, he brought to the hip-hop movement his joyful and unifying temperament. He died at 45 from a heart attack.
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Immediate warmth, unabashed availability, desire to share. Hip-hop dancer and choreographer Ousmane Sy, known as “Babson”, generated positive and soothing waves whatever he did. Face-to-face and in public. A key figure in the hip-hop community and the performing arts scene, co-director of the Center chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne since 2019, Ousmane Sy died of a heart attack on the night of December 26 to 27, in Antony (Hauts-de-Seine) where he grew up. He was 45 years old, was married to Mayaka Bamba: they were the parents of a little girl Neïla, 4 years old, and were expecting their second child.
Ousmane Sy was born on September 30, 1975, in Paris. Every year, until the age of 16, he spends his summer holidays in Mali, his parents’ country, where he practices traditional dances; an apprenticeship which sculpts its style from the inside. At the same time, he also distinguished himself in football. He was 16 when he discovered hip-hop and gradually shifted into a new era where the “fighting spirit” of sport fueled the quest for surpassing and virtuosity. In the 1990s, he immersed himself in the atmosphere of Parisian clubs, including that of the Queen, where he developed his passion for house music, which he would then nurture in the United States. He becomes the major figure of House Dance, rooted and airy, into which he injects the spirit of hip-hop battle and which he strengthens with African influences. “Inspire yourself from everyone to look like no one”, he said.
Carried away by the breath of the hip-hop movement, Ousmane Sy leaps on all fronts: shows, courses, battles, evenings… Having the chance to see him in action, on September 19, 2020, in MC (master of ceremonies), during the battle organized by Chaillot-Théâtre national de la danse and its All4House platform, gave an idea of his joyful temperament and unifier. “Symbolically, this moment was very strong, because we found there what he defended in an abundant way: a single music, House, and lots of different choreographic techniques on it, says Chloé Le Nôtre, director of the Seynod auditorium, in Annecy, which followed him since 2003. He made the uncompromising link between the hip-hop underground and the institution. To see him in this high place of dance that is Chaillot was important. “
Professional first steps at Suresnes
More recently, Tuesday, December 22, at La Villette, which has supported his work since 1996, he appeared calmly concentrated during the rehearsals of One Shot, his new and fifth piece for the dancers of the Paradox-Sal group, which he had founded in 2012. “He claimed the pleasure of dancing above all, comments Céline Gallet, co-director of the CCN of Rennes and Brittany. The level of enormous technical requirement should not never prevent, according to him, the generosity and simplicity of sharing with the public. “One Shot, announced on January 7, 2021 at the opening of the Suresnes Cités danse festival, will be filmed behind closed doors and broadcast.
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