The word "kotchegna" means “messenger”in Mahou, one of the languages spoken in the West African country of Ivory Coast. Renowned dancer, choreographer and drummer Vado Diomande chose this phrase for the name of the dance company he established, L’Ensemble Kotchegna D’Abidjan, in his native Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 1989. Diomande immigrated to New York in 1994 and reconstituted his group as the Kotchegna Dance Company. You can learn more about them at: http://www.kotchegna.com They performed at the Festival, and I was so enthralled by their energetic dancing and thrilling percussion that I became a "mini-groupie," attending three of their performances there. These are just a small sampling of the over 500 photos I took while they were dancing. Now, if I could just figure out how to bring them to the Atlanta area...