Nothing speaks resilience more than a flower that grows and blooms in a time of adverse conditions. This best describes the latest development on the Zimbabwean arts scene.

Possibly a first of its kind in the country, AfriKera Dance Theatre Hub (ADTH) recently opened its doors in Harare with kind support from Africalia and the Meikles Foundation.

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Afrikera offers a holistic, versatile, professional training in dance and related art forms. The development is a shot in the arm for the creative sector which has seen many venues, production companies, and spaces closing doors in the face of viability constraints and dwindling funding.

The new hub, is a creation of Afrikera Arts Trust founder, Soukaina Marie-Laure EDOM who has been in the country for 21 years and has never looked back since.

The hub is a platform for cross-fertilization of dance with other arts disciplines with an intention to make it a vibrant and creatively busy institution.

The newly arts hub will offer a three -year professional training programme titled, AfriKera Professional Dance Training (APDT). With a vision to become a centre of excellence in dance training for Zimbabwe, the SADC region and beyond.

Afrikera targets talented youth from low-income households and some students are on scholarship. The programme currently relies on donor funding, however, they hope to develop income generating schemes for sustainability and churn out properly trained and qualified artists who can be competitive on the global market.

Another project that is running under the Trust is Essence of Women Dance Ensemble which is aimed at creating gender equity for the professional female dancer.

It was created to address the lack of professional black female dancers in Zimbabwe. It is gender specific but not exclusively; that is, the themes of the productions are gender specific and although most of the company members are female, when the need arises it is not an exclusively female cast. The mission of Essence of Women is to promote and encourage dance among women of all cultures and to provide a platform for experienced choreographers, both male and female to present their work.

The hub will also play host to the AfriKera Dance Theatre (ADT) a branch that caters to the professionalization of the graduates and is currently operating as a dance company on a project basis and with guest professional dancers.

Afrikera is also developing an interesting me that caters for non-professional dancers of all ages which run throughout the week.

The organisation has an active collaboration with South Africa’s famed, Moving Into Dance Mophatong, Dunia Dance Theatre of Belgium/Sierra Leone and the now defunct Tumbuka Contemporary Dance Company.

AfriKera Dance Theatre Hub (ADTH) IMAGES: COURTESY OF AFRIKERA
AfriKera Dance Theatre Hub (ADTH) IMAGES: COURTESY OF AFRIKERA
AfriKera Dance Theatre Hub (ADTH) IMAGES: COURTESY OF AFRIKERA
AfriKera Dance Theatre Hub (ADTH) IMAGES: COURTESY OF AFRIKERA

A BIT ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Born in Paris, France to parents from Guadeloupe (FWI) a EDOM – Département d’Outre Mer (Overseas Department).Soukaina defines herself as a citizen of the world and boasts a wealth of cultures.

Soukaina recalls, “Sometime in 2014, It was obvious that some changes were necessary for my artistic occupation if I wanted to survive artistically and creatively in Zimbabwe so I seized the opportunity given to me and took a leap of faith. I was lucky enough to have a landing pad. I gathered some friends for a brainstorming session to see if my idea was sellable! Well apparently it was, here we are almost three years later.”

Soukaina, as she is affectionately known in the arts community, began her dance training in Guadeloupe and continued at the Academie Internationale de la Danse in Paris France.

She later went on to further her dance education in New York City with the world-renowned Joeffrey Ballet School and Alvin Ailey courtesy of a scholarship from the French Ministry of Culture. Soukaina specializes in modern, contemporary, tap, jazz, Afro-Caribbean and West African dance.

She has experience in running and teaching dance and has taught at culture centres in Guadeloupe, France and New York City plus an eighteen-year experience as the artistic director of a dance training programme in Zimbabwe before starting her own Afrikera organization which offers professional dance training. She is a founding member of the Essence of Women Dance Ensemble and is the dance consultant at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) for years. The mother of two also doubles up as a freelance interpreter and translator.

Video: The making of the AfriKera Dance Theatre Hub (ADTH)