Faith Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
LEGENDARY Zimbabwean dance troupe, Inkululeko Yabatsha School of Arts (Iyasa) is in Germany, where it is showcasing the best talent at its disposal as it takes part at the 2024 Rise Up tour.
Featuring young performers exhibiting traditional and contemporary styles, the tour is expected to facilitate cultural exchange, promote global understanding and grow artistic expression and appreciation.
Iyasa is one of the most celebrated performing arts schools in Zimbabwe and it has defied odds over the years by taking the local home-brewed talent to the world.
In an interview with Sunday Life, founder of Iyasa, Nkululeko Innocent Dube, said the five – Gugulethu Matshazi Dube, Banele Moyo, Hassan Muzorori, Fortune Ndlovu and Lauratta Phiri will be showing off their talents in Germany cities Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt as part of the KinderKulturKarawane.
“This is a project organised in collaboration with our partners in Germany. The objective is to give young people between the age of 16-19 an opportunity for an arts and culture exchange in Germany,” said Dube.
“For over 25 years, they invite groups and young people from various countries to visit and tour Germany and sometimes even stay with Germany families in a bid to create a better understanding of each other’s lives and culture.”
Dube also highlighted that the young people also present different productions that highlight issues that affect young people across the globe. In the past, they have explored and presented different productions inspired by the SDGs, the last having focused on climate change.
“This year, the five are presenting a production entitled Rise Up, which implores and encourages young people to use platforms such as social media to put an end to world hunger, poverty and promote gender equity.
“It is important to note that all the performers are doing this for the first time and their performances have been successful and impressive,” said Dube.
Dube said the group would present a music and dance production titled Fabulous Africa, which showcases modern and traditional dances and music from Zimbabwe and also participate in workshops at schools and other youth and young people’s gatherings, festivals and camps to exchange ideas, culture and knowledge with their Germany counterparts.
“Zimbabwe is rich in culture and it is important for us to express that to the world, Iyasa has since the year 2001 been involved in a lot of international projects and this is just one of the many we use to showcase who we are as Zimbabweans and tell our story through music, dance and theatre,” Dube said.
Iyasa is an organisation that works with young people and they are always keen to connect them to the world so that they explore and appreciate the power of the arts.
“The Germany audience has warmly received the group and we hit the ground running with several fully packed performances and raving press reviews,” Dube said.
He added that this would serve as a learning platform for the generation of artistes born after the new millennium, as they transit from one generation of artistes to another as Iyasa.
“The young ones are happy and it’s a life-changing moment in the sense that their perception of the world and of other people will be different after this experience.
“It’s an honour to represent Zimbabwe at this grand international stage where we have organisations, the press and Zimbabwe’s German Embassy throwing their support behind the initiative, it’s a revelation for them,” he said.
Dube said it would be a learning process for the young participants as they are slowly adapting to language, food and the cold weather patterns in Germany but these are all part of the experience and exchange of culture.
“We have a good balance of dances that are currently popular with young people in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular and the background of our traditional Zimbabwean dances that connect us to our country and origin,” Dube said.
He added that Iyasa remains committed to programmes and projects that give young people an opportunity to express themselves through the arts and they have various local, regional and international programmes lined up for the future as always.
