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Tsitsi Ndabambi
The famous Stewart Room at the Meikles Hotel boasted of a totally different set up as it looked like one of the queen’s Regal tea parties. HRM Elizabeth Regina was not around although it was coincidentally around the time of her birthday. But other things were there. Like a tower of three-tiered stands carried presentations of some classic bites; smoked salmon, pastries, cakes, scones-you name it.

All ready to be served to the ladies while they enjoyed the entertainment that matched this event.
The National Dance Trust Zimbabwe’s administrator Eve Stranix was the woman behind this fundraising event which was held so that they jet in three ballet instructors and four professional dancers from the Cape Town City Ballet along with their artistic director Robin van Wyk.

Robin was in the country earlier just to teach 90 local ballerinas at the National Ballet Centre.
The four will come and polish up their collaborative production which they are going to showcase at Reps Theatre from 1-5 August.

“We are doing all we can to keep dance alive in Zimbabwe so we have a line-up of fundraising events and the next one is going to be the Mama Mia Dance Show at Ster Kinekor Sam Levy in July,” said Eve.

The high tea was graced by Zim’s finest award winning dancer and choreographer Timikha Fisher and her crew from Breakthrough Productions. They added the icing on the cake with a memorable tap-dancing piece which followed the troupe routine that they did with the song You Raise Me Up.

It was not going to be an event without ballet and classical music, the prima ballerinas who are clearly following the legendary dancers Alicia Alonso Martinez or Galina Ulanova on their toes and little red dresses were impressive stealing the warm hearts of the young audiences who live in the imaginary land of happily ever.

As the crockery clinked on the tables with ladies sipping on their hot beverages a handsome young man; Nigel Hopkins; who sang so graciously that if he was up for an auction someone would have taken him home did his bit.

He did justice to Frank Sinatra’s My Way, the song that we last heard Mike the mouse in the movie animated Sing perform.
Their main partner for the high tea was Edgars Zimbabwe. The ladies were treated to a show of their finest garments.

Stylist Marshall Malikula put together dark and soft colours, heavy and light fabrics mixing and combining them to suit all occasions and climates on the showcased collection.

With the assistance of Jordan Chanetsa the models appeared in four different categories and walked the ramp in between the provided alternative entertainment.

The kiddies department was followed by the casual lady’s look for different tastes and sizes. Marshal did not opt for the petite looking models; he also brought in the ‘‘normal’’ looking African plus-size women of different ages just to show that the Edgars brand has in stock everything for everyone and bringing in ideas on how to rock the fine clothes.

He did the same with the men, lastly bringing them in together for the formal wear category.
He managed to spice up the twenty-something year model’s look by dressing her tailored suit with a crop top showing off a bit of skin bringing out the youth in her.

The lesson learnt from this event is that a show does not have to be too long to entertain people and all this happened in only one hour and fifteen minutes including raffle draws led by event master of ceremony Stan Higgins, during intervals which surely shows that the entertainers stuck to their timed slots.

Marshall and his team timed their fashion showcase according to the provide program and all was perfect and memorable.
She said the 90 dancers would be trained this week from various stages starting from five years old and fundraising shows have been lined up with the support of Meikles Hotel and Edgars and other sponsors.