CB: Thanks for talking with us. As always we ask our artist to think back to the earliest time they can remember dancing.

BN: You might not believe this, but I was little. Maybe I was about 5 years old. The Babye Falle used to come around playing the drum and seeking charity. As soon as I would hear the drum I would come out and dance. After a while, when the Baye Falle would come and ask "where is the dark skin kid with the blue eyes?"They would look for me. Then in 77 or 78 when the Magi cube was being introduced, the company would send people to the neighborhoods with little stuff [promotional], cups and bowls and stuff and there would be a party on the corner. I would come out and dance and I always won the prize. When everyone saw the prize they would ask me "where do you get that?" And I would say "I won it!"

CB: How did your parents feel about the fact you enjoyed dancing and seemed to be good at it?

BN: My parents didn't like it. They wanted me to go to school, but after a while they didn't have any choice. I'm going to dance. They said it was not what I was supposed to do. "You're not a griot, you're a guer (noble person)." That's what they would tell me. A guer is just supposed to sit back and watch the artists and give money. But even though I dance, I'm still guer! You see me at the tenebre. I dance and I give money to the other dancers too.

CB: Where are you from in Senegal and what is your ethnic group?

BN: I was born in Kaolack. I'm mixed Wolof and Sarakhole.

CB: So when did you first start dancing more seriously?

BN: When I was fifteen, first tour in Kaloack, there used to be a big festival in Dakar for young people, 15 to 20, singing, dancing, everything. All the cities take a group. I was in the group from Kaolack.

CB: Did your group win the competition?

BN: It wasn't a competition. It was just the different schools performing. After that I went back to Kaolack and kept going to school. But the arts were just in me. Oh, wait a minute, my first dance group was a little group in Pikene in 1982 when I was twelve. I was staying with a relative and we had a kids group. The schools performing was after that. Then in 1988 I started professional dance, like the ballet style of dance company. I was very serious.

CB: What group were you with?

BN: The Sotiba Boys with Ousman Fall and all of them. I stayed with them until 1992. I stayed with them but I was also with Blaise Senghor and the Ballet Afrique Noire, with Mansul Gueye. After that I went to the National Ballet in 1995.

CB: Were you in Sotiba Boys with Pape N'Diaye?

BN: No, I was before the young ones. I came up with the twins [Assane and Osseynou Kouyate]. For four years I traveled with the twins in the ballet, and then after us came Demba and Pape N'diaye.

CB: How did the ballet find out about you ?

BN: I went for an audition. They played and I danced and then I was told to come to the company [to join] the next day and that was it.

CB: Well how did they find out about you so that you were invited to audition?

BN: Oh, they traveled around and watched people as they were developing, so they could know who is dancing and how well are they doing. I was with the Africa Jamono Ballet. We used to go to Daniel Serrano and watch the National Ballet perform. We would jump on the stage and dance and they would they see you when you jumped on the stage and the directors would keep an eye on you, because they know they may need you later for the company.