adminBruce Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
TWO years ago, Antivirus Dance Crew was on top of the world. The accolades were beginning to roll in for the Bulawayo-based crew after years of blood, sweat and tears.The crew used to send crowds wild across the country with their inimitable dance skills. Girls screamed their lungs out while boys, although understandably envious at the crew’s undeniable popularity among females – swallowed their pride and gave the crew the applause and praise that their dance skills deserved.
In a space of two weeks between the end of November and the start of December of 2012, the crew managed to win the best dance crew category at the annual Zimbabwe hip hop awards, while they also annihilated their competitors at the Jibilika Dance Competition where they emerged tops.
The crew’s performance at the latter competition has also become part of the annual event’s folklore, with many that witnessed their electric performance proclaiming that the competition stood no chance, as the normally nimble-footed dance crews from the country’s capital seemed ordinary in comparison to the Bulawayo crew’s supercharged effort. Here was a crew that was hungry and seemingly equipped for success.
However, the Antivirus juggernaut faced one obstacle on its path to ultimate superstardom. The urban dance scene, due to its mainly teenage fan base, is tailor-made for young dancers and the crew’s members were not getting any younger. Although the crew, then comprising four members, Victor Madzura, Prince Dube, Ricco Andrews and Anthony Banana were still relatively young, they knew that their attractiveness had an expiry date as the city seems to have a steady supply of fine young dancers looking to overtake their more established predecessors.
The crew would not be the first to be banished into the dustbins of history. Many have been left wondering what happened to the dance floor dazzlers and crowd pleasers of the past. As their teenage fans grew up, the crews did not seem to grow along with them but instead were left behind as memories of a past and fading age. Many still wonder what happened to the likes of Kaotics, whom Antivirus succeeded as the city’s premier dance crew, and whose members are now scattered all over pursuing various endeavours.
This is the scenario that the crew hoped to avoid as adulthood greeted them and they realised that they could only exorcise this ghost that had haunted many a group by moving into a new field. As the years rolled past, the grim ripper was nearing, readying to call time on their life on the dance scene and to avoid the same grave into which others had fallen, the crew had to innovate.
A year and a half later, and one crew member fewer, the group has now moved into the music business, riding on the crest of the success of their Pokello song, a tribute to popular Zimbabwean Big Brother contestant Pokello Nare. The song garnered the crew 8,000 views in a week on YouTube, an achievement which even some of the country’s more vaunted artistes cannot boast of. Overnight the crew went from an admired dance crew to respected musicians culminating in the release of a mixtape, complete with a glitzy launch last month at Horizon Bar and Grill.
Crew member, Andrews, believes that although the video that went viral served as a huge stepping stone to the crew’s rapid ascent from dance to music group, they had always believed that their abilities would eventually bear fruit. He said as they were novices in the industry, they were learning along the way as they progressed with their new found careers.
“Things have been tough but we have learnt along the way. With that being said, we always had faith in our abilities even before the Pokello song’s success,” he said.
Andrews believes that the crew’s success at the dawn of their music careers does not mean they have to completely discard their dancing abilities. Instead, he believes that it is only a feather in their cap, a feather which he thinks most artistes in the industry do not possess.
“We are not leaving the dance aspect of Antivirus, but rather we are incorporating it into our new act. We are now just going to start dancing to our own music. We are making the transition to becoming a fully-fledged boy band,” he said.
This certainly makes sense considering how artistes on the global urban music scene have been able to complement their dance skills with smooth vocals to present a complete visual audio experience. The likes of Chris Brown or the Nigerian duo P Square, have prospered using this formula whose blueprint was written by the late King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, while locally Lovemore Majaivana also earned stripes for his dashing stage presence.
Despite things looking rosy for the upstart musicians, Andrews believes they have more battles to fight given the Bulawayo populace’s lethargy towards music originating from within the city. He also believes that their music will have an impact with local audiences because it is not bound to any genre.
“The going has been really hard considering that people in Bulawayo have really taken a liking to South African artistes. One of the ways of combating this is to make music that does not belong to any genre. We are here to blow up genres and not become part of them,” he said.
As the crew embarks on its musical journey, it remains to be seen whether they will remain the city’s golden boys or fade into obscurity like others before them. What is certain however is that many are watching eagerly as the next chapter in the crew’s journey begins.
Online Reporter