PREPARATIONS for the second edition of the Manicaland Secondary schools folk dance and music festival slated for Mutare this month are at an advanced stage.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
The festival which is set to attract over 20 secondary schools around the province will be held under the theme Our Culture, Our identity on March 26 and 27.
The festival is administered by Bembera Arts in the Eastern border city in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Heads in Manicaland and is supported and funded by Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust.
After the success of the first edition held last year fireworks are expected this year’s edition although organisers could not confirm the monetary prizes.
Schools are set to participate in three categories such as mbira, marimba and traditional dance.
In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, director of the festival and project manager Taurai Moyo said he believes that the festival is growing in leaps and bounce with each passing year.
“Preparations of the Manicaland Secondary Schools folk dance and Music festival is now at an advanced stage. I think we are improving as last year we had 14 schools and now we are going to have 20 schools,’’ he said.
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“We have been training two schools per district a set piece of Mhande dance from Masvingo and the schools will prepare their own dance which originates from their district or Manicaland as we also want to preserve Manicaland’s eccentric dances,”.
Moyo also indicated that the school dancers would be educated on the importance of cultural education practice in schools.
“Our guest group will be Morgan Zintec Teachers’ College from Harare who will send 50 teachers to perform as guest group to motivate these secondary schools students who do not take this activity serious. We also have lectures from Great Zimbabwe University and Midlands State University who will present papers on importance of cultural education practice in schools,” he added.
The aim of the festival is to market and develop talents in secondary schools students in arts activities and preparing them to be professional artists in future.
Sakubva High School, who were winners last year, host this year’s edition of the festival.
