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Tafadzwa Zimoyo Entertainment Reporter
All is set for the eighth edition of annual Jibilika Dance Festival which is pencilled for Bulawayo this weekend. Running under the theme “Freestyle”, the festival will allow young people to freely express themselves through dance, celebrating uniqueness while embracing Zimbabwean cultural diversity. According to festival organisers, the event will display high standards of choreography and professionalism as a way of making dance entertaining, engaging and economically empowering.
In an interview Jibilika Dance Festival founder Plot Mhako said this year’s festival is ushering a new dispensation as it will be hosted outside of the capital for the first time.
He said this year again the duration of the festival has increased to two days.
“Jibilika is Zimbabwe’s premier annual youth dance festival. The festival celebrates both urban and traditional dances and runs in competition format. We are hosting the show outside the usual place in Harare so that we also give other cities an opportunity to feel the festival at that stage. Since it’s outside Harare, we chose to have two days which are August 21 and 22 but the programme still remains the same,” he said.
He said at least12 dance groups are set to compete in the national final following the completion of provincial preliminaries.
“This year’s finalists are the defending champions, Explosion from Bulawayo, the 2007-8 champions Magesh also from the host city, Flying Angels from Harare, B Street crew of Bindura, Juveniles of Mutare, Extreme of Gweru, Jr Fox of Kadoma, Ghetto Clarks Zone of Chitungwiza, Super Geeks of Bulawayo, 3rd Wave of Norton, Ebony Arts of Gwanda and Zvaazvinhu of Masvingo.
“In addition to the groups, several individual dancers were selected to compete in various categories such as krump, breaking, new school and dancehall,” he said.
Mhako who was away for past two months in the United Sates said they have doubled the prizes for winners.
“Winners at this year’s festival will walk away with cash prizes which are double what the festival offered last year. They are as follows: Best Dance Crew $1 000, first runner up $750 , second runner up $500 while solos will get $100 each and $50 for the first runners up,” said Mhako.
He said the two-day festival will include workshops.
“The two-day festival kicks off with a free cypher in the city centre where budding artists will get a chance to showcase and battle through dance, beatbox and rap. This is in order to give more audiences access to the festival and encourage social cohesion and open dialogue. A series of workshops will be conducted with the provincial qualifiers with assistance from professionals as a way of enhancing their skills and performances. Again a discussion on gender inequality in the arts sector will be conducted as a way of addressing disparities in the sector. A free street wear fashion sale and showcase will be held,” he said.
Bulawayo-based hip hop star Cal-Vin, Awa, Teeko, Nashie and Probeatz from Harare are set to ignite the festival with their performances.
The festival is a youth urban cultural platform seeking to herald Zimbabwe’s hidden artistic talent and use the energy to address the ill-elements bedevilling the youths.
However, finalists at each provincial final will qualify for the grand finale which is held between August and November.
The festival is being held in partnership with the Culture Fund Zimbabwe with the Embassy of Sweden and Danida.
United States-based arts centre, called the Knight Foundation and the Zimbabwe Cultural Centre of Detroit are also supporting the festival.
Online Reporter