Through the Arts Envoy Program of the United States government, director/choreographer Chris Rudd and his 7-member dance company, RudduR Dance, came to Burkina Faso to participate in the In-Out Dance Festival in Bobo-Dioulasso, February 5-11, 2017. The United States Embassy has been a supporting partner of the In-Out Dance Festival since it began four years ago. Through master classes with Burkinabe dancers, a workshop for children, a power picnic with Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Program alumni and network members, performances at the Bobo prison, at Camp Militaire Ouezzin Coulibaly, and the Institut Français, RudduR Dance promoted Black History Month themes, youth empowerment, values of diversity, and art as business to a wide range of audiences in both traditional and very nontraditional performance spaces. U. S. Embassy support of and participation in this popular festival in Burkina Faso’s second largest city is significant as the national government pushes forward with efforts to decentralize by promoting Bobo-Dioulasso as the country’s “cultural capital.”
