In 2011, the Fondation Zinsou presents Antoine Tempé's contemporary African dance photographies at the exhibition “Dansons Maintenant! ". His black and white portraits of African choreographers and his color stage photographs are hung in 3m by 3m format on 19 containers placed on the Champ de Foire, a public square in the heart of Cotonou, Benin.
 The exhibition, which also aims to introduce visitors to the main currents of dance, offers a program of videos broadcast inside the containers, as well as a program of shows. The exhibition will welcome nearly 110,000 visitors in three months (April 3 to June 30, 2011)
 

The container entitled "Who is Antoine Tempé" presents the photographer's career and broadcasts a video interview of about ten minutes, taken from an hour-long interview leaded by Aurélie Lecomte and filmed on February 18, 2011, in Cotonou.

The photographer Antoine Tempé was born in Paris in 1960. After studying business, he moved to New York in 1983 where he worked as a trader on Wall Street. “I came to photography through dance,” he explains. When I started to take an interest in photography, I was practicing dance a lot”. In 1989, he started as a photographer and covered New York parties for various European magazines. Photo magazine regularly publishes his images. Photographing his fellow dancers in his studio, he quickly came to collaborate with African-American dance companies. His first trip to Africa dates back to 1999, on the occasion of the Panafrican Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). The following year, he embarked on a year-long photographic journey to West Africa and Madagascar. During the 4th Choreographic Meetings of Africa and the Indian Ocean, in Antananarivo, in 2001, he met the new generation of contemporary dancers from the African continent to whom he devoted studio and reportage work, giving rise in 2005 at the “Dancers of Africa” Exhibition (Columbia College in Chicago & Kaay Fecc Festival in Dakar). In 2011, the Fondation Zinsou devoted an exhibition to him entitled “Dansons Maintenant ! ". Invited by many dance festivals, leading photo workshops, he shares his time between Paris, Africa, Brazil and New York. His images have been published, among others, in Actuel, American Photo, Danser, Libération, Le Monde, Mouvement, The Village Voice. 

http://antoinetempe.com

Source : Panneau d’exposition « Dansons Maintenant ! », Cotonou, 2011, Fondation Zinsou. Dansons Maintenant ! 2011, Catalogue de l’Exposition, Fondation Zinsou 2012. Ayoko Mensah, « Antoine Tempé : photographie « Corps et graphiques » », in Africultures, n°62, Janvier – Mars 2005, p. 155-156

Fondation Zinsou has recorded all the performances given during the festival "Dansons Maintenant !" "that was organized in 2011, 2012 and 2015 in Cotonou, Benin. Interviews of dancers and choreographers invited for the festival were also realized.

These recordings and interviews have been uploaded on Numeridanse as a courtesy with the aim of making them reachable by many people as possible, taking into account their scientific nature and their contribution to the dissemination and promotion of contemporary African art, more particularly  the field of contemporary African dance.

Directed by Marie-Cécile Zinsou, the Zinsou Foundation opened its doors in June 2005 in Cotonou, Benin. A pioneer in West Africa, it works to promote contemporary art in Africa. Platform and exhibition center for contemporary African artists particularly Benin artists, in the Ouidah Museum and in the Lab, at Cotonou, the Foundation also acts for the promotion of education and social development through cultural and educational activities aimed in particular at young audiences,  with the major challenge of free accessibility . In 2011, the Zinsou Foundation exhibited Antoine Tempé's dance photographs and invited choreographers to create a work in situ, in resonance with the images of exposed bodies. The  success of this event entitled “Dansons Maintenant !", (Let's Dance Now!) convinces the Foundation to organize a second edition, in 2012, dedicated solely to dance, around the theme of urbanity. In 2015, a third edition took place, in conjunction with the “African Records” exhibition devoted to African music and photography from the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s, which provided the motive for new co-productions of performances. The three editions of "Dansons Maintenant ! " 2011, 2012 and 2015 have all been recorded on video  (shows, restitutions of workshops, interview) and make an archive collection of 120 videos. 

The extracts from the Archive collection of "Dansons Maintenant !" have been made available free of charge by the Zinsou Foundation.

  The deposit of the video archives of "Dansons maintenant !", belonging to Fondation Zinsou was made possible thanks to the Centre National de la Danse Research award in dance, granted in 2021 to Dr Anne Décoret-Ahiha for her research project "Consolidation of the African choreographic field: focus on Benin" and with the kind permission of the artists.