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Kundai Marunya in LUSAKA
Four local dancers made impressive wins outshining their Zambian counterparts as they made their debut at the annual Street Culture Festival at Nasdaq Complex in Lusaka. Kudzanai Mcmillan Chikowe, Felix Anderson Mwale, and Terrence Kapesa took first positions in B-boy, krump and hiphop dance categories while Sylvester Shoniwa was second in the B-boy category.

It was however the B-boy category that attracted wows and cheers as two Zimbabwean dancers Chikowe and Shonhiwa battled in the finals, with some impressive power displays and near-impossible moves that would surely tear muscles and break necks of amateurs.

“I’m really happy about winning in my category but most importantly it was really good to link up and compete against dancers from other countries,” said Mwale, celebrating his krump victory.

Travelling with the Zimbabweans, Jibilika coordinator Blessing Fire said he was impressed with his team.
“I was really impressed with my team’s performance. We dominated the festival winning three out of five categories. This just shows how much, passion, effort, hardwork and commitment our dancers invested and it did payoff,” he said.

Still riding on their victory, the dancers are now readying themselves for the annual Jibilika Dance Festival to be next month in October in Harare.

Street Culture Festival is an urban culture arts showcases different art genres.
Founded to give a platform to young urban people, the festival has over the years grown to push for positive change in society.

Co-founder Kapembwa Siame said the festival has registered growth over the years.
“We started by staging at the mall, attracting shoppers as our reveler, gradually growing to hosting regular competitions before we eventually grew into a festival.

“Besides the festival we also hold regular training in the community so as to grow the dance culture,” he said. Siame was impressed on the turnout and reception of this year’s festival

“We engaged Zimbabwean dancers so as to challenge our locals, and develop the movement.
“This year’s edition was a great success. We look forward to more engagements and much more growth in the following editions,” he said.