Umkhathi takes indigenous dance to India
Award-winning theatre group Umkhathi Theatre Works is at the Surajkund Crafts Mela International Festival in New Delhi, India where they are representing Zimbabwe.
They are performing local traditional dances.
The fete is a unique international craft festival, which invites artists from across the globe to showcase their culture and talent and it offers unconventional attractions such as traditional folk dance, puppet skits, musical shows for tourists of every age.
The festival began on March 19 in Haryana’s Faridabad and runs till April 4.
More than 20 countries from Europe, South Asia and Africa participate in this craft festival which makes it a success.
“We are performing at the Surajkund Crafts Mela International festival in New Delhi, India,” Umkhathi Theatre Works founder, Matesu Dube told Standard Style.
“This is an annual festival but it didn’t happen in the last two years because of Covid-19.
“We are representing Zimbabwe at this festival we are performing alongside Nigeria, Swatini, Uganda, Ubzekstan, Cape Verde and others.
“It’s a big festival which has two performance stages and a lot of craft stalls and Zimbabwe has a craft stall.”
He said they will be in New Delhi for the next two weeks where they will showcase traditional dances from Zimbabwe.
“We are performing traditional dances from our country,” he said.
“The deal came through the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation via the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe.
“We are presenting traditional dances from the southern parts of the country, isitshikitsha, amabhiza,
umdadada and mbube music We are also presenting pieces from our previous productions. They say “travel is the greatest teacher of all.”
“We hope to benefit from this tour by learning new dance styles and presentation techniques from other groups in the festival.”
He said after the tour, they will present their show, Footprints in Bulawayo at the end of April.
“We will continue working on our theatre show — Bayethe Nkosi, a story on the battle of Shangane,” Dube said.
“This year Umkhathi celebrates silver jubilee, we hope to do many events as part of the celebrations.
“The world is opening up slowly, touring has begun though the hustle is getting clearance to enter foreign countries,” he added.
Umkhathi Theatre Works is an award winning multidiscipline performing arts ensemble established in 1997.