Les Ballets maliens
Les Ballets maliens is a Malian dance troupe created under the name Ensemble folklorique du Mali in 1960, the day before the independence of Mali on September 22.[1]
By 1978, Les Ballets maliens had evolved into an artistic group specializing in traditional Malian dance, but open to the innovations of contemporary dance and choreography.
Repertoire
- The dance of the possessed
- The dance of Bamanan or Bambara masks
- Madan
- Sunu
- Achagal : Dance tamashek
- Kanaga : dance of Dogon masks
- Dance of the horse
- Dansa
- Mabaji
- Dance of Tambours
- L’épopée Mandingue (Ballet)
- Fura (Ballet)
- Cigele (Ballet)
- Bolon Sira
- Sigi tè môgô-son
- Lolon ni kolongala
Tours
- 1972 : USA (77 performances)
- 1976 : Festival des Arts Nègres at Lagos (Nigeria)
- 1985 : Festival Panafricain de la jeunesse at Tripoli, Libya
- 1990 : International Festival of Music and Dance at Kuopio (Finland)
- 1990 : Festival international de danse of Fort de France (Martinique)
- 1997 : New Orleans International Jazz Festival (USA)
- 1998 : Participation at the last Exposition mondiale de Lisbonne, Portugal
- 1999 : Performance at the opening ceremony of the Sommet de l’OUA (Algeria)
- 2000 : Participation at the Festival Asilah (Morocco)
- 2000 : Participation at the Exposition universelle de 2000 at Hanover in Germany
- 2001 : Participation at the Festival of the 33rd Anniversary of Grande Jamahiriyya arabe libyenne at Tripoli, Libya
- 2002 : Japan (Tokyo and Kyoto)
Awards
- 1963 : Gold medal of folklore at the Théâtre des Nations at Paris
- 1966 : First prize at the Festival des Arts Nègres of Dakar (Senegal)
- 1994 : Gold medal at the Afro-Arabe Fair in Tunisia
- 2002 : First prize at the Festival Africain de Folklore de Guinée FESTALOG
Instruments
All the instruments of Malian traditional music are employed by Les Ballets – djembé, dundun, balafon, ngoni, tamani, M'Polon, uru, Yabara, Karignan, and Daro (bell).
References
- ^ Djebbari, Elina (2019). "Decolonising culture, staging traditional dances, creating a new music-dance genre: the National Ballet of Mali's postcolonial agency". Journal of African Cultural Studies. 31 (3): 352–368. ISSN 1369-6815.