Three Zimbabwean artists representing the country at the just-ended 2016 edition of the World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) in Hollywood, America went on a looting spree for medals at the closing ceremony held at the Long Beach of Performing Arts Terrace Theatre yesterday (July 16, 2016).
They won 15 medals, with versatile beat boxer, Probeatz, bagging 5 gold medals plus 3 more gold as overall division winner. Team Captain Sylent Nqo scooped the Senior Grand Champion of the World Instrumentalists division gold medal plus another gold for original works and silver in his division. Timothy Hogo won one gold medal, one silver and one bronze in the modeling division.
Probeatz was awarded a one month dance scholarship with the Millennium Dance Complex in LA worth $10,000. Sylent is in talks about working together with two-time Grammy-winning producer Jeff Webber (who produces for Ariana Grande).
An ecstatic Zandile Ndlovu had this to say, “My head is buzzing right now. So I need to breathe and do a tally of our medals and see scholarships properly.”
“I’m overwhelmed right now and it just proved a point that you can make anything happen in this world but you need the hunger and self drive,” said ProBeatz.
An elated Ms Jessica Nyarayi Tandy, who is the head of the Zimbabwean delegation and also the director of the local chapter of the competition the Zimbabwe Championship of Performing Arts (ZICOPA) had this to say:
“As for me, this was just a concept a couple of months ago, a month before the competitions I had no team–nothing.
“It all looked like it was not going to happen, but I was not willing to give up. I begged, borrowed, and did everything to secure this team. A month later ZiCOPA has produced a world grand-champion for instruments and a beat boxer who beat all vocalists in the categories he entered and got gold and overall divisional wins.”
ZBC TV presenter and the youngest Power FM DJ, Timothy Hogo, who took part in the competition’s modeling category, was equally on cloud nine after the win saying, “It really was a great experience I learnt a lot. When I entered the competition it was just for fun, but along the way I fell in love with modeling and I don’t mind doing it as a full time career.
“When we got here it was just chilled, but as we got to the semi’s everything just changed; I started feeling the competition and it was now crazy. And the finals, wow that was something else! But hey, I did what I had to and I’m proud that I made it to the last.”
The international multi-disciplinary annual performing arts festival, widely regarded as the ‘Olympics of arts,’ draws participants from 64 countries from all the continents.
Acclaimed poet and patron of the local chapter, Albert Nyathi, could not hide his joy saying, “This is amazing, this is historic. I had this feeling you guys would make us proud. Amhlophe boys!”
Hollywood based Zimbabwean actor Tongai Chirisa, along with Nomagugu Gandary (a TV producer in Hollywood), and philanthropist Philipa Sibanda, came to support their fellow countrymen.
The competition is organized by The International WorldStars and aims to promote aspiring performing artists worldwide.
ZICOPA was launched April 2016 and is a registered trust in Zimbabwe formed in response to the conspicuous absence of the world class Zimbabwean talent on international platforms like the World Championships of Performing Arts.
The Zimbabwean team competed with performers from U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and Southern Africa. Artists benefitted from more than $450, 000 in scholarships and prizes from New York Film Academy, New York Conservatory for film & TV, Millennium Dance Complex, LA Models, Oleg Cassini, Indasoul Records , CSM Word/Music among others.
 in Hollywood, America went on a looting spree for medals at the closing ceremony held at the Long Beach of Performing Arts Terrace Theatre yesterday (July 16, 2016). They won 15 medals, with versatile beat boxer,...Read More){kind=link}