Fatou Cissé was born in Dakar, where she began her dance studies in 1989 at the Manhattan Dance School. A school directed by her father, Ousmane Noël Cissé, former director of the National Ballet of Senegal. In 1996, she joined the Guinean traditional dance ballet Bougarabou. She then participated in the creation of the ARTE company and the company's first show, Le Cimetière des masques (2001). After meeting the Congolese choreographer Andréya Ouamba, she joined his company as a performer. In 2012, she created Regarde-moi encore, a solo that questions the place of women, particularly in Senegalese society. This solo performance was supported by the Institut français' visa pour la création programme. This show, which toured Africa and Europe, made her known as one of the most popular choreographers in her field. In 2015, she created Bal du Cercle for the Avignon Festival, also with the support of the Institut français. 

For several years, Fatou Cissé has been developing a dance practice that questions the condition of women in an Africa torn between conformism and the desire for modernity. By her own admission, she is torn between her Muslim faith and her role as an artist, Fatou Cissé explores the porous borders of the body and the assignments to which women are subjected, without seeking to deliver an overly explicit message. In Regarde-moi encore (2012), she plays a woman who remains motionless for a long time before daring to move and take ownership of her body. However, Fatou Cissé does not want to use dance merely as a vehicle for a political message. For her, the language of the body is sufficient in itself and allows, without words, to "develop what we want to say or what cannot be said". 

Fatou Cissé recently presented the show La ville en mouv'ment at the Dak'art 2022 festival. This was a true return to her roots for the dancer who, although she has never left the city where she was born and where she lives, trained for a long time abroad before presenting her creations internationally. Since her show Le Bal du Cercle (2015), Fatou Cissé has attached great importance to the tradition of street parties, and in particular to the tanebeer ("night party" in Wolof). During these events, which are typical of the outskirts of Dakar, women can temporarily free themselves from their assigned place. A true carnival inversion that allows them to give free rein to their imagination by indulging in the joys of disguise without limits.