Zimbabwe 2015

Music credit: Sun Is Shining (Extended) Bob Marley And Funkstar De Luxe

We spent three weeks in Harare this year with volunteer dance artist Lucy Crook, rehearsing, organising and presenting our Youth Festival. Gresham Nyaude led art classes for the children to create a bright colourful banner, while Brighton Chinyama, Benji Geza and Loraine Mushonga choreographed and rehearsed. The children also found time amongst the creativity to write letters to the children in the dance groups in Norfolk.

This year wasn’t without it’s challenges. The situation in Zimbabwe changes very quickly so being adaptable and open to change was key to making our project successful. After some initial set-backs our festival day eventually arrived and the children enjoyed taking part in workshops in the morning and performing their well-rehearsed dance pieces in the afternoon. 

The performances kicked off with Metro Dancers from Chitungwiza, a high density area of Harare. This group was about 30 young teenagers from Metro School who had created a piece about their identity as teenagers in Zimbabwe. Our youngest group from Glen View Primary 4 shared their singing, dancing and poetry which created a piece about verbal abuse in the home and the need for love and encouragement. Mambo Dancers were our last youth group, from Chitungwiza. They performed a very lively traditional dance piece with an amazing energy accompanied by powerful drumming and voices.

Artists who took to the stage to inspire our youth groups included Royal Crew (breakers), Zvishamiso Arts (traditional contemporary dance), Potato (singer) and Tirikoti Arts (traditional Mbira music). Thank you to all the young people and artists for taking part – it was an amazing day!