Les danseurs Logwé

Creation: 1973

The Logwé dance troupe was started in 1973 as one of the first artistic ensembles in the Toma region of Samo (Burkina Faso), where the people have managed to keep their ancestral traditions alive through wrestling competitions, the mask cult, dance festivities, song and dance during funeral ceremonies and all kinds of celebrations. Among those who contribute to this perpetuation of Samo culture, there is the griot who, as both mediator and historian, musician and guardian of the traditions, is at the forefront of the different acts that punctuate the lives of the people, of every member of the community, from cradle to grave.
Once it became a veritable icon of the whole Samo region, it was natural for the company to participate in the regional cultural competitions taking place in what used to be Upper Volta from the 1970s onwards, and to find itself in the final stages of the very young biennial, “La Semaine Nationale de la Culture” (SNC, the national culture week) in 1984. The Logwé troupe rapidly made a name for itself as one of the most structured artistic ensembles, whose performances were also the most accomplished, showing great innovative and creative ability with its dancers who have the bodies of Greco-Roman wrestlers.

Very rapidly, too, the Logwé troupe was invited to festivals abroad: to the city of Agadir in Morocco for its first outing, which hosts around 35 troupes from all over the African continent for its Pan African Festival. The success of their performances obliged the organisers to extend their stay for a week in Rabat, enabling them to perform for the Crown Prince.

In 1990, after three consecutive awards at the SNC, the Logwé troupe was raised to the rank of Artist of the People, the highest national distinction in the arts. This was the beginning of a veritable odyssey for the company which, with its twenty or so dance artists, acrobats and musicians, travelled to the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and France and elsewhere. In Africa, its performance at the first African performing arts fair (MASA) in Ivory Coast attracted much attention. In the late 1990s, the troupe made a significant evolution. It thought about the future and set up a youth group to ensure the continuation of its glorious career.

Source: Montpellier danse show program