Meet Mabwere the award-winning dancer

13 Apr, 2014 - 01:04 0 Views

The Sunday News

Bruce Chimani  Sunday Leisure Correspondent
HAILING from the City of Kings, Sean Mabwere is a man who is humble and loves what he does. Having won the Nama Award for the Best Choreographer, Mabwere is poised to ride on this success wave to impact his world through dance. Even more interesting and quite unique is that the 28-year-old Mabwere has debunked the notion that dancing is for people who are not academically gifted as he holds a degree in Applied Mathematics from Nust and shelved it to pursue a career in dancing.

Having been with Rolex Dance Crew ever since 2006, his journey to win the Nama award has been one of continuing dedication to an art that he loves. Although Mabwere will not be able to travel with them because of commitments at Hifa, Rolex Dance Crew will be in Zambia for an annual Dance Project on 19 April.

Sunday Leisure Correspondent Bruce Chimani (BC) had an interview with Sean Mabwere (SM) who is now based in Harare and excerpts of the interview are below.

BC: What have you been up to in your dance?
SM: Well, I’ve been up to a few things — quite recently I have been preparing for Hifa. I got the opportunity to choreograph and contribute my skills and creativity in one production that The Dance Trust of Zimbabwe’s National Ballet is doing at Hifa this year at the 7 Arts Theatre on 3 and 4 May. I choreographed the hip hop section in that production and it was a first for me working with ballet dancers at this level of my choreography career, so am really excited that I got to explore my creativity and ideas of fusing hip hop and ballet in a piece and see what can come out.

I have also been teaching dance in schools from pre-schools, primary schools and high schools as well, having dance classes and doing workshops as well. At the end of last year I got an opportunity to work with a dance studio in Harare called M ‘n’ M Dance Factory that offers many genres of dance from tap, jazz, ballet and contemporary and I got in as a hip hop instructor and I have been so blown away by everything I am experiencing from their perspective to their experience.

BC: How is it being a dancer/choreographer and a devoted Christian at the same time?
SM: Wow, being a dancer/choreographer is amazing. As a dancer you get to learn a lot from other dancers and choreographers and when I choreograph I love it when I get to flesh out my concepts, creativity and ideas. I get to see how my mind goes above and beyond others’ limit. I call it being in the kitchen and cooking what to serve to the people. But having said that I have a passion to raise the standard of dance here in Zimbabwe to an international standard that will be recognised and appreciated. And what better way to do it, than when you are a Christian who believes in God, the creator of the heavens and the earth?

Being a Christian in this industry I am in a lot of challenges from people stereo-typing you to be someone who only dances to Christian music and cannot be relevant to other people in other areas of life. In C S Lewis words I believe in Christianity as I belief that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. If you were to ask me what kind of dance I do, I’d tell you this . . . there is dance made for the body of Christ “The Church” and there is dance made from the body of Christ “or God’s World” and I do both with a biblical worldview as my blueprint. And my foretaste is hip hop properly submitted to the God of glory who created it.

BC: So, in general, what is the purpose of your artistry?
SM: My purpose is to change the view of dance in my country, to see people appreciate it as an art form that should not be called and seen as a hobby but a profession worthy of value and attention as banking, politics, business and telecommunications. I get asked all the time “So what do you do?” and I say “I dance” and what immediately comes after is “Okay, so apart from dancing what else do you do?” It’s like asking, “What do you do?” “I am a banker” and then you get asked “Okay, apart from that what else do you do?”

My purpose with dance is to raise a standard of excellence in our dance art and raise it and be proud of it in its original way that we perceive it.

And that we become a creative powerhouse that every other nation will be looking towards for creativity, excellence and set the cultural standard for the 21st century and beyond. That we do not always copy what other people from other countries do — not that it’s bad to get inspired and learn from them, but use our God-given creativity to be original.

BC: What are some of the challenges you have so far faced?
SM: The challenges are always there and before I made the decision to commit my life to this after finishing my degree in Applied Mathematics, I was ready for the heat that I knew would inevitably come and is still coming.

Bruce Barton said this: “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.” John Maxwell said, “No matter what our circumstances, our greatest limitation isn’t the leader above us, — it’s the spirit within us.”

My challenges have been numerous, from stereotyping my work to seeing it as a hobby and not a career, financial stability, lack of sponsors to attend workshops and training programmes and urban dance camps to get equipped and trained by the best dancers and choreographers in the world right now so that I stay in touch with dance trends around the world and stay relevant to my sphere of influence. All that I know I taught myself and grabbed any opportunity that I have to grow and learn and throw myself in the deep end. I am determined to stay on course and do what I need to do.

BC: But why did you particularly choose to dedicate your life to dance?
SM: I love dance, it’s my passion, that is what I do but it is not who I am. My dance has no faith, it didn’t give its life to Christ, Sean did, Sean has a faith, he gave his life to Christ. The same way a knife is for cutting I am for dancing. But let me say this, my satisfaction and identity is not in dance, it’s in Christ whom I belong to. Therefore, if dance is to be taken away right now I am still happy and content, if I am to lose my leg right now I am still happy and content because I have come to know this, “that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him alone,” not in what he has created.

BC: And how would you comment on the recent Nama Award?
SM: The Nama award was a shocker. I got nominated in two categories — Outstanding Male Dancer and Outstanding Choreographer. Just that was enough for me and I was grateful to God, I didn’t even expect to win at all because I was saying to myself “Sean it’s your first time being nominated in either of these categories and also you are up against seasoned people who have won in times past and are well rounded in their craft . . . so forget and smile . . . don’t get your hopes too high . . . stay happy with just the nomination buddy, that way you will be fine”. Then when I missed the outstanding male dancer award I was like, “You see, I told you, stay cool with the nomination homie.” However, when they called my name for Outstanding Choreographer I couldn’t believe it, it’s as if God nudged me and said “I am God and I do as I please and here you are my son, well done good and faithful servant.” The rest is history. Joy was all over the place.

This award has opened up even greater opportunities for me and I am getting to move and work with different people and meeting new influential people in and around town, it is a good and humbling feeling, and am going to ride on this wave for as long as possible.

BC: Tell us more about your marital status, inspiration, aspirations and any plans of staging shows or coming to dance in Bulawayo?
SM: Marital status — I am single.

There are men who I definitely look up to in my life who have shaped me, both dead and alive. Men like Mbonisi Malaba, my pastor from Bulawayo at New Creation Church, John Piper, Mark Drsicoll, Timothy Keller, Ravi Zacharius, Lecrae, KB, Tedashii, Trip Lee, Andy Mineo and the whole 116 Clique. These men have modelled for me what a real man is like and are my living examples and role models through their lives, books and music and helped shape my biblical worldview for what the world is and how it should be and our role in it in all spheres of life.

Charles Spurgeon, C S Lewis, A W Tozer are some of the dead guys who have also inspired me greatly.

In my art I have people I respect, look up to and learn from — the Rolex family including Cyril from Bulawayo, Tony Tran, Lyle Beniga, Keone Madrid. These are my dance heroes.

I aspire to attend the annual Urban Dance Camp to learn from the world’s greatest dancers and choreographers, this year it is happening in Germany in July.

Coming to Bulawayo, I will say Bulawayo is a place I adore and love, it all started there and I would love to come back soon to do a show and workshops and work with dancers that side for any events, something is in the pipeline but I can’t give out the details just as yet.

BC: How about your background, family and etc — what does it look like?
SM: I am from a family of six kids and I am number five. My family is very supportive and they are proud of me, including my siblings though for some it took a while to understand what I was doing and why, but they have come to appreciate it and I am grateful to them for their patience with me. I have a degree in Applied Mathematics from the National University of Science and Technology. It has not been easy to get here but I am not there yet. I will continue to run this race faithfully and obediently. I leave you with my all-time favourite quote that has impacted on me greatly to continue in this path I’m in: “If God called you to be a trash man, don’t stoop so low to be a King.”

 

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