by Jabulani Sithole and Nyasha Kumbawa
The SADC Dance Festival opens in Harare from 11 to 22 September, using the theme “Building SADC through Dance.”
The festival, the region’s fourth and expected to attract more than 500-dancers from over ensembles, will showcase the region’s rich and diverse culture and heritage.
The event comes after three successful festivals of music, theatre and visual arts in Zimbabwe (1995), Mozambique (1997) and Namibia (2000) respectively.
For the region, festivals are fundamental in the promotion of the arts, interaction, networking and above all in building a community with a common vision. They promote cultural awareness and the potential for culture to mobilize and reach out to people based on the objectives of the SADC Treaty of 1992. The goals are the implementation of the recommendations of the Lagos Plan of Action on “cultural industries” in Africa.
The plan recommends that African governments should “ensure that our development policies reflect adequately our socio-cultural values in order to reinforce our cultural identity.”
A SADC Peace Dance will also be launched during the 11-day regional cultural gala, consisting of a series of performances dedicated to peace. The series of dances will be performed around southern Africa during which artists will perform the message of peace and stability in the region.
The cultural dances at the festival are a celebration of the vibrant rhythm of social existence in Africa. They showcase the diversity of activity in day-to-day life as well as the beauty of African dance.
The festival will showcase southern Africa’s traditional dances, inspired by wedding ceremonies, battles, rituals and routines of everyday life, as well as more contemporary presentations such as indlamu, a Zulu and Ndebele variation of isitshikitsha, a warrior dance.
Dances in Africa celebrate production and reproduction. Muclwngoyo, a Shangani dance popular in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and parts of South Africa, also known as the hunting dance, captures hunting movements and the celebrations that follow.
Another Zimbabwean dance mbende, celebrates fertility and reproduction. Its movements enact the reproductive acts. During colonialism, mbende was banned for being sexually perverse to the authorities. However, the ban was not successful as the dance was just renamed Jerusalem and the people continued dancing. This is a spectacular dance that will certainly thrill many during the festival. Dance is also part of the national medium through which people express happiness, anger, frustration
and longing. The “gumboot” dance which emerged in South Africa during the 1970s came as a result of the rise in migrant labour for the mines. The dance has become famed within the region and beyond, and is expected to be a major attraction during the festival.
Among the dance ensembles to look forward to is the Malawi National Dance Troupe whose
repertoire include war dances and others that celebrate the installation of chiefs and mark the different stages of the rite of passage.
South Africa will be represented, among others, by Indlovu Link Dance group with its “Pulse of Africa” production, a multi-faceted choreography featuring the “gumboot” dance.
Mauritius will present the Faria Freedance Entertainment Team that portrays the multi-cultural tapestry that makes Mauritius.
And the contemporary dance session will feature Mozambique’s National Song and Dance Company and Zimbabwe’s highly-celebrated Tumbuka Dance Company.
Running alongside the festival will be an African marketplace exhibition, a trade fair to provide exposure for artefacts and handicrafts from various SADC countries.
Part of the festival days will be set aside for skills workshops and seminars on the different types and styles of dances practiced in the region, taking advantage of convergence of dance theorists and specialists. These will engage participants in discussions concerning the nature, development, documentation and the future of dances within the region and beyond. (SARDC)
