UMKHATHI Theatre Works, an 18-member dance troupe based in Bulawayo, recently represented Africa at the Dance Africa Festival held in United States.
Report by Staff Reporter
For a dance group that has been in existence since 1997, the trip to America was payback for the hard work, perseverance and the numerous hours they put in to perfect their craft. It was no fluke when the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) artistic director Chuck Davis and line producer Nick Schwartz flew to Zimbabwe and immediately fell in love with them.
Umkhathi was chosen out of more than 30 other groups to represent not only Zimbabwe, but the whole of Africa in the annual dance festival. Matesu Dube, the artistic director for Umkhathi Theatre Works retraces the footsteps to the day when they were told they had earned themselves air tickets to travel to America: “It all started in 2012 in August, when Chuck Davis and Nick Shwartz from the Brooklyn Academy of Music came to Zimbabwe to audition groups that perform traditional dance,” he said.
“The winners were going to participate at the Dance Africa Festival 2013 edition.
“They visited lots of groups in Bulawayo looking for just one group to participate in the festival. Our group was the one which was chosen.”
It was the jatlhako dance package comprising of various Zimbabwean traditional dances such as isitshikitsha, muchongoyo, changara, chinyambira and the gumboot dance that they displayed in America. Jatlhako is a Setswana word, which means we are dancing.
The month long visit took them to different states within America.
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“We performed in Denver for a week and then we moved to Brooklyn, New York where we performed for two weeks and we finished off in Washington DC,” Dube said.
Famous international dance critics blown away by Umkhathi’s performances wrote glowing reviews.
“The most stunning entrance came from Umkhathi Theatre Works of Zimbabwe, a marvellously silhouetted procession across the front of the stage, with some dancers tilted forward like horses and others seated on them like riders and waving fans like whips.
“Suddenly all the lights came on and the dancers burst, electrifyingly, into the three-dimensional life of setapa,” wrote Alastair Macauly of the New York Times.
“The power of the group’s music-making was overwhelming. It felt like an unstoppable force. Drums, feet, claps, ululations and whistling overlapped with amazing rhythmical intricacy — all impossible to resist”
Dube said the experience and exposure was worthwhile. Back home the group will continue their work with schools in rural Matabeleland. Umkhathi Theatre recorded a new album while in America and they expect it to be out in a few weeks’ time.
