Ladji Camara

Ladji Camara was born in 1923 in Norasuba, Guinee. He is of the Malinke Tribe and speaks the Malinke Language. Ladji began traveling in 1946 when he went to live in the Republique du Mali where he pursued both farming and drumming. In 1953 he had the opportunity to join the 1st Les Ballets Africans de Gunee and he travelled all over the world with them for ten years. For one year, in 1962, he came to California expressly to work with Katherine Dunham, an early modern choroegrapher who did research in the West Indies and South America on African cults. Ladji joined the Negerian drummer Olatunji in 1963 and travelled with his group for seven years. In 1970 he opened his own school and began his own dance company -Ladji Camara African Dance Studio, located at 1753 Boston Road in the Bronx. Ladji has performed with Nina Simone in Jamaica in 1972, Alvin Ailey in 1974, and did a tour in Japan in 1976 with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.