‘Pole dancing was my brainchild’

real name Beverly Sibanda held at Zimunhu Bar in Epworth recently.
Zoey was also quick to add that she also wanted to introduce something unique in the local dance circles where the same dances kept on being recycled.

“When I went to South Africa in 2005, I immediately fell in love with pole dancing after seeing some white chicks doing it and I said to myself, why not me.
“There was so much competition in South Africa which inspired me and I decided to come back home and show others what I had learnt and pole dancing was one of them,” she said.
Asked about the challenges she faced in popularising the dance in Zimbabwe because of the negative perception that was attached to it, Zoey said:
“The arts industry in Zimbabwe is tricky because people think that pole dancing is dirty like what they see in some Western movies.

“But I made every effort to dispel that notion and that is why the dance is being practised by others dancers and people are loving it,” she said.
Zoey said she was happy to be an inspiration to other dancers who are now following in her footsteps.
“It’s good to be an example to others, Alick Macheso was inspired by Madzibaba (Nicholas Zakaria) and he appreciates that.
“My advice to my fellow dancers is that we should work together and uplift our industry together because it is a tough industry,” she said.

She described Bev as a “sister”.

“She is my sister in the game and I don’t have anything against her,” said the single mother of five-year-old daughter, Lerato.
That is what people who attended their combined show at Zimunhu Bar testified as the duo went through their paces without showing any signs of animosity.
“It was not easy to compare the two since they are both good in their different ways.

“The way they complemented each other on stage was a clear sign that they are in good books and that the show was not competition but merely an event to entertain people,” Luckson Zimunhu, who organised the reunion show, said.
So popular has Zoey become at the joint that she has become the resident dancer performing there every Sunday.

Born Noleen Sifelani on April 24, 1987 in Chitungwiza, Zoey got into professional dancing in 2005 as one of Roki’s dancers.
She then moved to South Africa where she dabbled in hip-hop and R&B dances before venturing into pole dancing.
She returned to Zimbabwe in 2008.