Chronicle Editor
Nkosilathi Sibanda, Showbiz Correspondent
ONE of Matabeleland North’s renowned traditional dance group, Pezhuba Pachena has resorted to recording its performances and posting the recordings on social media to remain relevant during this Covid-19 lockdown.
Well known for specialising in different African dances and singing, the group has over the years entertained mainly tourists visiting the Hwange National Park, Victoria Falls and other tourists destinations in Matabeleland region.
The group cannot stage live shows or perform to tourists due to the Covid-19 restrictions hence it has resorted to recording its performances and posting the recordings on different social media platforms.
The group is trying to market itself through social media platforms so that when restrictions are relaxed it can get business.
The director of the 2019 Chibuku Neshamawari finalists, Lucky Munzambwa said the long period of lockdown had forced the group to experiment with the digital space. “Our acts have always been done live on stage but this is no longer possible because of the lockdown restrictions hence we have resorted to using the social media,” he said.
Munzambwa however, said the lockdown had not killed their creativity as a group and were therefore producing in the backyard.
“We have been busy working on several projects like short educational video clips especially for social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. These clips are meant to educate people on the coronavirus through music and dance,” he said.
Munzambwa said the group’s target was to grow its audience especially among the youths so that the young people appreciate traditional music and dance.
“The youths are the ones that use the social media most so we decided to use it to market ourselves. We are also working on a music and poetry project where we want to fuse music and poetry,” he said.
When the group started it was just performing in Hwange and surrounding areas specialising in theatre for development.
They worked on health and community projects with mining and tourism corporates.
“We have a good partnership with Shangano Arts Trust that we are working with to produce online videos. We have also worked with various departments at Hwange Colliery Company,” said Munzambwa.
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