The Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa) will this year have an exciting line-up of some of the world’s most exciting dancers who will have an opportunity to showcase their flexibility and skill during the six-day festival.
The British Embassy in conjunction with the British Council will present the Live Vibe, featuring six of the country’s hottest dance groups including the Super Crew led by internationally acclaimed Tony Adigun who is artistic director of Avant Garde Dance.
Adigun has choreographed and toured the world with many leading recording artistes including Whitney Houston, Usher Raymond, Ashanti Douglas and many others.
Along with the artistic director of Impact Dance, Hakeem Onibbudo, they have worked with Zimbabwean dancers to create the show, featuring the best local hip-hop talent to entertain audiences of all ages.
All the way from India, A Bhangra Banquet, an internationally popular type of Indian music associated with Punjabi culture will also be staged.
Bhangra was developed in Britain in the early ’80s by first and second-generation immigrants drawing from music and song from the Punjab region as well as various Western musical styles.
From the US presenting tap dancing and live jazz music to Zimbabwe will be the Jazz Tap Ensemble. Hailed as leaders in the renaissance of tap, the group brings together its extraordinary dancers and musicians in a spirited repertory of virtuosity.
Based in Los Angeles, they have appeared in major concert halls internationally over the past 30 years.
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Other performances to look out for include Between the Lines, a contemporary dance piece by internationally acclaimed choreographer George Harrold and On the Rise by the National Ballet of Zimbabwe.
Then there is Gri . . . Eshe!, which features some of Matabeleland’s finest performers, including Black Umfolozi, Siyaya, Jeys Marabini, Willis Watafi, Family Voices, Umdumo Wesizwe, and Simon Banda.
World-famous Turkish dancer Ziya Azazi will also be part of Hifa. He is highly acclaimed for his pioneering choreography based on the whirling rituals of Sufi dervishes.
Audiences will also witness dance skills in Big Boys Don’t Dance by two notable contemporary choreographers, Shi Pratt who is based Norway, and the current artistic director of Tumbuka Contemporary Dance Company, Tawanda Chabikwa.
Their work makes use of an original sound score incorporating voice, environmental sound and music as a dancer moves through a contained field of bottles.
