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Tafadzwa Zimoyo : Arts Reporter
South Africa-based Zimbabwean hip hop dance choreographer Mullin Krienke is expected to share notes on dancing at the Jibilika Dance festival workshops to be held today and tomorrow in Mutare and Harare respectively. The workshop in Mutare will be held at Courtauld Theatre while the Harare venue will be Batanai Gardens.Both workshops are running under the theme “Dance Business” with the aim to empower dancers, professionalising the trade and exploring ways through which dance can be pursued as a career and a business. In an interview Jibilika Dance Trust founder Plot Mhako said all is set for the workshops.
“Jibilika Dance Trust, through its recently established Dance Academy, is hosting workshops in Harare and Mutare with visiting South African expert.
“The first workshop took place in Harare last week with another one set for Mutare on Wednesday (today) and then a professional choreography master class will be conducted back in the capital on Thursday. I am happy with how some participants are responding and believe that the workshops will enlighten and make them better dancers. Dancing is an art and a source of livelihood that needs to be guided too,” he said
Mhako said his organisation established Jibilika Dance Academy last month to offer free dance lessons in the community.
“The academy is just one month old and we had a double approach where we offered free classes to young people in communities with Dzivarasekwa having been the first before spreading to other areas and having another commercial class in the city centre,” he said.
Mullin challenged local dancers to take pride in their culture. He said they should build an identifiable brand as a way of conquering the world of dance.
“Dancers in Africa are not looked at as professional yet, there is an industry that supports them. I want to share people’s work to the extent that dancers can make a living through the art.
“Dance evolved and we became professional. It started as a hobby and we loved the attention the girls at high school gave us,” he said.
Born in Zimbabwe, Krienke began his career dancing in a church dance crew.
Krienke was part of the Inmates breakdance crew that won the best hip hop category at the inaugural Jibilika Dance Festival in 2007 and went on to establish a very successful dancing career in South Africa where he founded and runs Dance Avenue Academy. He is pleased to bring back home the knowledge and skills he has acquired over the years. At only 25, Krienke has already notched up an impressive list of achievements, from performing on world stages to choreographing for multi-platinum artists like Kanye West and has toured to Europe and the USA on several occasions.
He has in the past done projects for big SA brands such as Cell C and Jet.
Krienke has created a platform for African dancers to showcase their work.
He is also a dance choreographer at a certified dance school called DanceWeb in Johannesburg.
Online Reporter