BEIJING, June 1 -- The Mali Pavilion celebrates its National Pavilion Day by staging song and dance performances saturated with an exotic flavor. Taking center stage are two well known Mali dancers, backed by the Neba Solo dance troupe which enjoys great popularity in African music circles.
Dancing along with visitors at the Mali Pavilion are Bocary and Ibrahim, who are cousin dancers invited to perform inside Expo Park by the President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure.
The pair were not originally included in the performance lineup. But with a wish to heat up the atmosphere and add more fun, the President of Mali invited Bocary and Ibrahim to Shanghai.
Bocary, Malian Dancer, said, "We were so excited and honored to be invited by our president to perform here. There is not a single artist that has received such an honor in the history of our country. So we set aside our current work
and immediately prepared for our trip to Shanghai."
Bocary and Ibrahim arrived in Shanghai on May the 8th, and quickly began working at the Joint Africa Pavilion, welcoming guests with their vibrant moves and carefree spirits.
They were soon invited to collaborate with the Neba Solo Troupe, which once performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2007.
Ibrahim , Malian Dancer, said, "Although we are in a strange country, and the performing venue and sets are totally different, we find the audiences here are so enthusiastic and so nice to us. Their screaming and cheers almost take my breath away."
The two perform twice everyday at the Shanghai Expo, together with the Neba Solo Troupe, which enjoys widespread popularity in African music circles. Neba Solo has toured around the world, gaining a solid fan base with their wide array of musical instruments, the coolness of pentatonic melodies, and the lead singer's reed-like tenor voice that's punctuated by rhythmic accents and phrasings.
