Anani Dodji Sanouvi, has been hailed for his ability to assimilate different traditions into his own dynamic dance style. Born in Togo, brought up in Gabon and having lived in Senegal, he brings together traditional heritage and modernity, local and universal, ritual and aesthetics.

In 1997 he began dancing professionally in Togo. He attended workshops such as at the Ateliers du Monde in Montpellier (France, 2001), the Professional African Contemporary and Traditional Dance program of the L'Ecole des Sables of choreographer Germaine Acogny in Senegal (2002, 2005) and at P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium (2006).

Anani taught and performed in Africa and Europe for several years before taking up residence in Brussels as Dance Laureate of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Program for a mentoring year with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, in 2006, at her dance company ROSAS. In 2005 he was also a laureate in the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries and in 2004 a Guest artist of the Goethe Institute of Munich.
During his period in Brussels, Anani has taught African rhythm and dance to first-year students at P.A.R.T.S., performed and toured with Rosas, while developing further his research on the relation between primary impulses and sound.

Nowadays Anani is based in Amsterdam and Senegal where he is establishing his company and recently his work has toured in UK, USA, Holland, Belgium and Austria. Besides, he has concluded a residency at Danswerkplaats Amsterdam with the performance of his new creation, “Heavy Walking” - a collaboration with tap dancer Marije Nie.
Anani passionately negotiates his position of being an African dancer inside a non-African context, not giving away what he considers crucially important in his roots but being able to assimilate different traditions into his own language.