Its dances are a strong part of Malawi's culture, and the National Dance Troupe (formerly the Kwacha Cultural Troupe) was formed in November 1987 by the government.

And 20 years later, miraculously, we collaborated with a company from Mali, the Sogolon Marionette Troupe of Bamako, where we made a piece about a tall giraffe.

In Liberia, for instance, a troupe of young returnees and IDPs used weekly theatre performances in the community to raise awareness of SGBV in an accessible way.

His wife, Peng Liyuan, is also linked to the military, having served as a civilian member of the army s musical troupe, and carries an honorary rank of general.

And so Jon had a brilliant idea He went out to recruit the best of the best dancers off of YouTube to create this dance troupe The League of Extraordinary Dancers, the LXD.

The LXD electrify the TED2010 stage with an emerging global street dance culture, revved up by the Internet. In a preview of Jon Chu s upcoming Web series, this astonishing troupe show off their superpowers.

In autumn 1966 around 20 members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe broke off and started their own collective called the Diggers, who took their name from a group of 17th century radicals in England.

Omidyar has supported some of the organizations we most admire the Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, Ushahidi, WITNESS and we're particularly honored to be part of a class that includes UK based transparency organization MySociety and Kenyan political satire troupe, The XYZ Show.

Puppets always have to try to be alive, says Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company, a gloriously ambitious troupe of human and wooden actors. Beginning with the tale of a hyena's subtle paw, puppeteers Kohler and Basil Jones build to the story of their latest astonishment the wonderfully life like Joey, the War Horse, who trots convincingly onto the TED stage.