Children show off talent at dance competition

Teachers, pupils, parents and significantly, officials from Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Cont Mhlanga sat before the stage watching as school children from across the primary schools surrounding Amakhosi Township Square competed for top honours courtesy of Intwasa Arts Festival’s children dance competition and funded by Habitat For Africa a Victoria Falls based tourism company last Friday. Many years down the line, the dream is real. Though the project started out as a martial arts club, it soon morphed into a center of the arts. You cannot talk about the arts in Zimbabwe today and not mention Amakhosi Township Square in Bulawayo: a place where township youth can escape the vagaries of unemployment and ghetto crime through pursuing the Arts. How must it feel to be Cont Mhlanga? “When we started out there was no Amakhosi to talk about. Now today, I always feel there is more we can still do,” reminisced arts guru Mhlanga as he contentedly watched kids grace his stage.

Despite the searing sun, and an hour after the scheduled starting time, the competition spurted into action as dance troupes from Lukhanyiso, Mzilikazi, Mgiqika, Inzwalazi, S.O.S. primary schools to mention a few  took turns to flaunt their dance moves. The judges’ criteria was based on presentation i.e. stage formation, choreography, use of props, regalia, impact and effort. The judging panel featured three experienced dancers from Kwabatsha (Trust Madolo), Umkhathi (Joseph Ngubo) and Savuka (Richard Ndlovu). These are men who make their living through dance and have toured the world through the art form.

“When you dance you must have pleasure in your heart as you do it,” advises Trust Madolo of Kwabatsha a renowned dance group here. When S.O.S Primary were strutting their moves, I turned to the teachers sitting next to me and said “game over”. They could not be chagrined by my seemingly premature statement because the S.O.S. danced like professionals and nailed their “mabhiza” dance rendition. Ultimately, the choreography was impeccable enough to help them wipe the slate clean in the contest. The school won in the best male dancer (Ngonidzashe Marevererwa), best drummer (Mark Maxwell), best coach (Miss Consolate Dube) and best troupe categories. They were only pipped to the best female dancer slot by little Miss Patience Dube of Mzilikazi Primary whose energy on stage left many dumbfounded. She was so ferocious I wondered what they feed her at home.

 “We want to foster the traditional dances of Zimbabwe as there are many dances coming into Zimbabwe. We realised that with time if we are not careful we will lose our dances. So we want dances like isitshikitsha, incuzu being preserved as they reflect the cultural aspects and our Zimbabwean way of life. That is why we decided to sponsor this competition. This is our second year now. We started in 2011. Last year we failed top because of financial constraints. We are back this year,” spoke Rodwell Sibanda the managing director of Habitat for Africa and funding partner for the children’s dance competition which saw the individual dancers getting school uniform vouchers and the school winning a cash prize of US$300 and floating trophy.

Speaking to the best coach winner Consolate Dube after the competition, I discovered some interesting information. Firstly, that though she is a librarian at S.O.S Primary, she is an artist in her own right with a pedigree that links her to Matesu Dube founder and director of national traditional dance champions Umkhathi Theatre Arts. Moreover, that the said group members have been contracted by the school to coach pupils traditional dances. This is all in tandem with government policy that now makes it mandatory for schools to teach the arts and culture. It appears that artists, as the schools and other institutions hire them, are beginning to reap the benefits of government’s visionary policy of arts education policy in the schools. Someday, when a critical mass of people who have gone through the current education system is reached, it will no longer be difficult for a family to go and watch a theatrical performance at Amakhosi Township Square as a few enlightened ones currently do. In that future, hopefully not far away, other corporate partners will be all too eager to take advantage of captive audiences following the Arts.