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Arts Correspondent
All is set for this year’s Jerusarema-Mbende Dance Festival that comes to life today at Murewa Culture Centre. During the two-day competition 20 schools from Murewa and other places in Mashonaland East province will battle it out with the best performing groups walking way with prizes. Famous drummer Douglas Vambe, former Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance competition winners Ngoma Dzepasi and Makarekare are expected to be among the guest artistes.

Also on the opening day will be an interactive workshop for traditional dance teachers themed “Traditional Dance as Pivotal in Intangible Cultural Heritage”. The thrust of the workshop will include discussions on the role of traditional dance in communities today, understanding intangible cultural heritage and the link between dance and heritage.

Coordinators of the event, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, said the important issues will be tackled to encourage preservation of culture through dance. Tomorrow will see various traditional dance groups performing and these will include Angola Dance Troupe, Musapingura from Chipinge and Reshon Mbende Arts Laboratory.

“Registered visual associations will also exhibit traditional food as well as instruments and costumes such as drums, mbira and rattles among others especially for Jerusarema dance. “The Festival aims to provide sustainable foundations for the transmission of skills to the younger generations and to promote awareness of the value of the dance as well as the importance of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage,” reads part of NACZ statement.

The partners for this year’s festival are Culture Fund and SIDA, DANIDA and Unesco. Jerusarema-Mbende is a popular dance style mainly practiced by people living in the Murewa and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe districts. The dance is characterised by sensual and acrobatic movements by women in unison with men.

The beat is driven by a single poly-rhythmic drummer accompanied by men playing woodblock clappers and by hand-clapping, yelling and blowing whistles.