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Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
Gwanda based arts ensemble Bolamba and Bulawayo dance troupe Ezimnyama gave a mouth watering performance on Tuesday evening at the Bulawayo Theatre, with their collaboration officially kicking off the 2019 edition of the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo.
The two groups combined forces to come up with African Rituals, a stunning display of storytelling through song and dance.
Earlier on, the festival had kicked off with an arts reporting and reviewing workshop and 100, 100 Voices, Poetry for Girls by Girls both at the National Art Gallery.
However, the highlight of the first day of this year’s lntwasa was at Bulawayo Theatre where Bolamba and Ezimnyama showed the power of collaboration.
The performance of the two groups was made all the more potent by the fact that throughout the hour long display their bodies did the bulk of the communication, with no dialogue throughout their act.
In essence, African Rituals gave illustration of courtship in the traditional sense, as the audience was taken through all the stages of a love story spiced up by the continent’s customs and rituals.
So polished were the two groups’ act that the initiated about the workings of theatre might have been left gasping at the ease with which they changed costumes or switched languages with effortless ease.
The physical prowess of the performers was also a marvel to watch and indeed at one point they seemed to make the very ground beneath them at the Bulawayo Theatre shake and dance as if their feet were about to thump through the stage’s wooden floor.
Perfect stage lighting, intensely physical acting and excellent singing made African Rituals a performance worthy of an Intwasa opening act. It might not have had the pomp of past opening ceremonies but Tuesday evening’s display proved that pure, innovative art can be as captivating as the most lavish and glamorous of festival opening events.
The Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo continues with shows lined up throughout the day in Cowdray Park, National Gallery and Bulawayo Theatre.
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