eBusiness Weekly
Prince Rayanne Chidzvondo
Hosting 25 international artistes, 35 local artistes, 13 dance performances and 7 shows in 3 days, MAFUWE International Festival of Dance, is set to roar into life in Harare from August 16-18, 2019.
Mafuwe International Festival of Dance, being Zimbabwe’s first all international dance festival is set to be showcased at locations including Reps Theatre, National Ballet (Dance Trust of Zimbabwe) and Stodart in Mbare.
With showcases, workshops, panel discussions and networking events, as well as projects for younger audiences and the local community, the festival aims at becoming an annual event that offers high quality and in-depth knowledge sharing while also furthering and promoting contemporary dance and movement in Zimbabwe.
Mafuwe is the first solely dance festival in Zimbabwe to bring together, various dancers, performances artists from all round the world, including performances from Uganda, South Africa, Morocco and Germany.
Local productions will include multi-award winning Jerahuni Movement Factory, Chaleen Chimara Dance Company, NAMA award winning 2019 best female dancer Vein Alfazima, Tatenda Chabarwa and Jonathan Kamupanda representing the Dance Trust of Zimbabwe.
With slots for semi-professional dance companies such as The Chozen, Infinity Dance Company, Megatronz crew and Bad Boys Crew.
Gwevedzi will provide a musical performance while Simba Arts will be facilitating the traditional music and dance exchange and outreach with the visiting artistes.
Created by creative entrepreneur Plot Mhako, NAMA award winning choreographer and artistic director Brian Geza and award winning German dramaturge, arts producer Cindy Jänicke, Mafuwe is running under the theme “Invisible Boundaries”.
The name “Mafuwe” was adopted from Fuwa in Lenje, a word spoken by the Bantu people of Zambia which means to be rich or well-off, while Mafuwe is also a traditional dance performed during rain-making processes in parts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
“We chose the name as is connects to the spirit and goal of the festival which is to inspire and bring brightness to people in the middle of struggles, to challenges new artistic innovation and creations through imagination and the desires to bring together humanity for the better good regardless of any physical differences,” Mhako said.
The vision of the festival is to create unity through dance and movement by bringing together Pan-African and international performances that deal with diversity and inter-cultural understanding, where dance can be used as common ground, as communications tool, as a way of living and seeing the world.
It is also a means to create sustainable contemporary dance networks in Zimbabwe and across Africa while nurturing professional artistic exchange, as well as encouraging semi-professionals and amateurs to discover the joy of movement and artistic expression.
