Preparations for this year’s Jerusarema Mbende Dance Festival that takes place in Murewa next month are well underway.
Dance groups from the local community and primary schools will participate at the festival that runs from September 26 to 29 at Murewa Culture Centre.
The Centre has coordinated the festival with assistance from the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) since its inauguration in 2008.
NACZ marketing and communication manager Donald Chidoori said pupils from various schools will compete in a traditional dance competition that takes place during the festival.
“The children’s dance competition during the festival aims at encouraging children to appreciate and perform Zimbabwean traditional dances, thus preserving our rich cultural heritage which is faced with extinction,” said Chidoori.
“The organisation of this year’s Jerusarema Mbende Dance festival has been supported well by the local community, government departments, the Murewa Rural District Council and all the hotels in Murewa.
“The Jerusarema Mbende Dance Festival is a platform to showcase, preserve and transmit the Mbende dance to future generations.”
For the first time in its history visitors to this year’s festival will experience an exhibition of crocodiles and lion cubs, courtesy of Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
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Since its inception the festival has generated a lot of interest amongst the Murewa and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe (UMP) community and the nation at large.
A theatre group Blue Stars based in Murewa is expected to spice the festival through staging a number of plays.
This year’s festival will also see the showcasing of traditional wear and the historical mbende drums amongst other artifacts.
During last year’s edition 20 primary schools from Murewa and UMP districts battled it out for the Jerusarema-Mbende dance competition.
Rukariro Primary School of UMP came out tops for the third time in a row, with Murewa’s Mazianike School coming out second.
The competition results reflected the dominance of Uzumba in the most popular dance of the region.
However, this year Rukariro Primary School will face a stiffer challenge as other schools are preparing to knock it off its perch.
Besides Jikinya Mbende Festival, the primary schools will also have an eye at another NACZ-organised Jikinya Traditional Dance Festival.
Primary schools around the country are already preparing for the district and provincial competitions that will be held country wide before the winning schools meet at the national finals in Bulawayo on November 26 in what promises to be an explosive final with lots of entertaining, exhilarating and energetic traditional dances.
As part of acknowledging the host province, unlike previous editions, this year’s festival will see pupils performing Amabhiza as the competition piece and a dance style of their choice.
