Founded the day before the independence of Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

 on September 22, 1960, the ensemble folkloric of Mali by 1978 had evolved into an aristic group specializing traditional malian dance, Les Ballets maliens, 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
  Dogon people
  The Dogon are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000 The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions, their mask dances, wooden sculpture and...
  
   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 et 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

Djembe

A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....

, Dundun

Dundun

Dundun may refer to;*The Yoruba talking drum*Dunun, dundun, doundoun or djun-djun, a family of West African bass drums* Dunedin, the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand...

, Balafon

Balafon

The balafon is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone...

, N’Goni, Tamani

Tamani

Tamani is a small town and commune in the Cercle of Barouéli in the Ségou Region of southern-central Mali. As of 1998 the commune had a population of 14,858....

, M'Polon, Buru, Yabara, Karignan, Daro (bell)