A visit to Rwanda is not complete without seeing a dance by the Intore Dancers, the dance form took shape in the courts of Rwandan Mwami(The King), it is generally a story telling dance, in which stories of love, war and time of hard ship are put into a dance form. It is more like an opera than a ballet as some Belgian’s termed it. It can not be termed as a battle dance alone because, it is performed in different scenarios, it was also performed after winning a battle.

It would be more appropriate to say the dance of the Intore as Intore Dance is a newly coined term, the actual meaning of the term Intore is “the chosen ones”, so basically it was the dance of the chosen once or the dance of the Intore rather than Intore Dance , as it is usually termed in common literature.

Intore dance involves elaborate head gear and spears for the men and traditional flowing dress for the women. In the background there will be a choir like group singing along. As the story progresses the Intore dance becomes more vigorous and expressive.

The dance was traditional performed by all the different ethnic groups, as battles where fought together. Most hotels have a complementary performance during the week ends. These performance vary a lot from the traditional form in their stories.

If you are interested in seeing an Intore dance performance, you can contact the receptions at Huye (Butare) and Rukari. The cost is according to the number of people attending the performance and the time of the day. On weekends the charges are higher by 50%.  Photography during the Intore Dance performance is charged extra and per person with a camera.  The cost is around 100$ for a group of 5, for exact costs contact the museum. Contact information for the museums can be found in the museum article.