By Tendai Chisiri
Sixty participants conveyed at National Art Gallery for a 15-day workshop which started d on 17 July and ends on 2 August organised by Chenhaka Trust.
The training specifically for dance sector will see the participants receiving certainly ficates at the end of the workshop on 2 August Wednesday.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the training, Chenhaka Trust executive director Taurai Moyo said he chose the dancers because they are always left out unlike others in the arts industry.
“We are targeting the dance sector because as an organisation, we have noticed that many workshope targets musicians or visual artists and there are no workshops directly targeting dancers”, he revealed.
He said the training is for Mashonaland region which comprises of four provinces. “So our participants here are drawn from Harare, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central.
“They are here for 15 days and we have 60 participants who responded to our call for participants”.
“When we got the funding, we made a call for participants. We as an organisation, we respond to the needs of the arts sector. The needs of the sector is capacity building, training and education so that we can professionalise our sector, we can standardise our sector” he said in the first week of the event.
“If the dancers are educated, they are not going to be oppressed. If a musician starts a band, he/she needs dancers at the front. So these dancers can be oppressed if they don’t know their rights”.
“They should familiarise with the decent work conditions like I should sign a contract, how much should one charge for the work and how many hours should be work”, he explained
“Our 60 participants are consists o dance group directors, finance and admin officers, communications and marketing officers and individual dancers. We invited all so that they can learn what is needed for the dance sector to generate revenue”, he added.
A participant at the workshop Tridon Publishing and Arts Trust executive director Obey Jasi commended Chenhaka Trust from r hosting the workshop.
“The workshop is a credit we are giving to Chenhaka Trust. It is helping not only organisations but even individual dancers. There are so many topics that they are teaching. We have received lectures on social media and digital distribution on how to market ourselves on the internet”, Jasi said.
“We are living in a global village nowadays and social media is the only way we can market ourselves. There are soany courses lined up”, he said.He is based in Marondera, Mashonaland East Province.
Mudakira Nyau Club based on Tafara Harare Province founder Linag Kefa also applauded the workshop bit bemoaned lack of exposure for the Nyau dancers.
“We are pleasing to be included in some event as the Nyau dancers are not receiving the required attention. We need supporters and this can be achieve if we get exposure. We want to join associations related to our tradebit we don’t know the way forward”, she bemoaned.
She applauded the workshop. “This workshop is helping us in a lot of ways. Now we know the importance of joining Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and even YouTube. Some of us may not be generating income because we don’t know the channels to follow. So we are learning a lot at this workshop”, she said.
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