Twenty-five dance companies from across Africa descended on a small Senegalese fishing village over the weekend for the African Dance Biennial, the continent’s largest showcase of contemporary African dance. Dozens of dancers in vivid oranges, greens and blues stomped, leaped and collapsed into the sand of the sun-baked village of Toubab Dialao, an hour from the capital Dakar . Founded in 1997, the African Dance Biennial has spent nearly three decades rotating across African cities — most recently Maputo , Mozambique , in 2023 — with the aim of raising the visibility of choreographic work on the continent. The three-day event, which closed late Sunday, was held at the École des Sables, or School of Sands, in Toubab Diallo. The school has become the continent’s most prominent professional dance training institution in recent years. It was founded in 1998 by Germaine Acogny, who is widely regarded as the mother of African contemporary dance.…