Meet Sidiki Conde, star of "You Don't Need Feet to Dance"

Sidiki Conde shares skills and hope with kids (Photo by Alan Govenar)

On Friday, March 22, meet the director and star of

You Don't Need Feet to Dance,

a documentary by Alan Govenar (The Beat Hotel)

on the life and work of drummer-dancer Sidiki Conde.

Conde and Govenar will be in attendance
at the opening night screening

at New York's Quad Cinema.

Showtimes for the week of March 22-28: 1pm and 7:30 pm

An intimate documentary about a man who overcomes his disability one day at a time in New York City, Alan Govenar's new film reveals the extraordinary life of African immigrant Sidiki Conde.

Sidiki was born in 1961, in Guinea, West Africa. At age fourteen, polio left him almost completely paralyzed. Sent to live with his grandfather in a village deep in the forest, Sidiki learned to manage his disability, building his upper-body strength so that he could walk on his hands. When faced with the dilemma of dancing in a coming of age ceremony, he reconstructed the traditional steps by dancing on his hands instead of his feet.

In time Sidiki ran away to Conakry, Guinea’s capital city, where he and his friends organized an orchestra of artists with disabilities recruited from the city’s streets. They toured the country, striving to change the perception of the disabled. In 1987, he became a member of the renowned dance company Merveilles D'Afrique, founded by Mohamed Komoko Sano. Sidiki became a soloist and served as rehearsal master, composing and directing the company’s repertoire. He also worked as a musician and arranger with Youssou N’Dour, Salifa Keita, Baba Maal and other popular musicians.

In 1998, Conde’s music brought him to the United States, and he founded the Tokounou All-Abilities Dance and Music Ensemble. In the United States, he has continued to perform and teach, instructing people of all abilities in schools, hospitals and universities, and served as artist in residence at a Bronx public school for children with multiple disabilities.

In You Don’t Need Feet to Dance, Sidiki balances his career as a performing artist with the almost insurmountable obstacles of life in New York City, from his fifth-floor walk-up apartment in the East village, down the stairs with his hands and navigating in his wheelchair through Manhattan onto buses and into the subway. Despite the challenges, Sidiki teaches workshops for disabled kids, busks on the street, rehearses with his musical group, bicycles with his hands, and prepares for a baby naming ceremony, where he plays djembe drums, sings, and dances on his hands.

Advance ticket sales: 777-FILM #636 or at movietickets.com.

Quad Cinema
34 West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(directions)