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Dance in Zimbabwean schools since 1980 Of the performing and fine arts, the formal education system for primary and secondary schools as inherited from the colonial regime at Independence in 1980 in Zimbabwe made provision for Art and Music only. Both subjects were taught in the primary school but not examined. Art in the secondary school was a curricular subject and it was possible to take Art at both O Level and A Level. Music was only included, where included, as an extra-curricular activity, along with drama. Since independence this has remained essentially the situation. Dance, in particular traditional dance, is also an activity in many primary schools but virtually no secondary schools. Ballet is an extra-curricular option in many schools that were once reserved for whites in the pre-1980 period though ballet classes are provided at school and outside school by teachers or organizations outside the formal school system. Traditional dance as fostered by the Ministry of Education has been restricted largely to competitions in which schools compete while all performing exactly the same traditional dance with the emphasis being on performing the dance as it is conjectured to have been danced traditionally. Any formal experimentation or creativity would normally be seen as an unacceptable deviation or even corruption of the traditional form and lead to a poor assessment. However recently the Government Commission on Education made recommendations that the performing arts should be included in the school curriculum and preparations are ostensibly underway to introduce them. It is reported that syllabi are in the process of preparation. The National Arts Council has advertised a National Consultancy to prepare a comparative survey and report on the teaching of the arts and culture in the formal education system in Zimbabwe and in other countries both in Africa and elsewhere.

CASE STUDY: TEACHING DANCE TO CHILDREN IN ZIMBABWE THE CHIPAWO EXPERIENCE Prepared for the Regional Conference on Arts Education in Primary and Secondary Schools as well as in Non-formal Education Systems, 26-1 July 2001 Prepared by Dr R.McLaren (Kavanagh), Executive Co-ordinator of CHIPAWO

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However given the lack of teachers trained to teach the performing arts and the time needed to put these recommendations into practice, it is likely that it will be some time before the recommendations of the Commission are enacted. Dance in informal education in Zimbabwe Classical and modern ballet, jazz, tap and other forms of dancing are offered to children and young people by various individual dance teachers and dance schools. Attendance at such classes is largely confined to the nation’s minorities – people of European, Asian and mixed descent. However there is a growing minority of middle class black Zimbabwean children attending such classes. One of the major events of this section of dance for children outside the formal school system is the annual Stars of Tomorrow weeklong concert at the Reps Theatre in Harare. An exception to the above is the outreach programme of the National Ballet, which established ballet classes for children living in the so-called high-density suburbs of Harare. This resulted in the formation of the acclaimed Tumbuka Dance Company. There have been and still are many traditional dance groups all over the country both rural and urban in which children and young people take part alongside their elders. Still more are involved in the traditional dances of their home regions as they participate in the traditional ceremonies, rituals and pastimes of their culture. Many children and young people were inducted into the songs and dances of the liberation struggle either through their direct participation as mujibha or chimbwido or by attending the all-night political mobilization and education meetings held usually at night by the “comrades” called pungwe. The 1990s, possibly as a result of the well-publicised activities of CHIPAWO and Amakhosi, other groups were founded specifically for children. In these groups children are trained to perform traditional dances and sometimes music and drama. Among such groups would be Tendayi Children’s Performing Arts in Mufakose high-density suburb in Harare, Mafara Young Warriors and Workshop ’96 of Kadoma. Mixed with the educational and cultural content of these group’s activities a pronounced commercial component is to be found. Dance as an aspect of CHIPAWO’s Arts Education for Development programmes The Children's Performing Arts Workshop (CHIPAWO) The Children's Performing Arts Workshop (CHIPAWO) was established in 1989 in Harare, Zimbabwe, in order to fill the gap between the formal school system

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and imported cultural forms children are exposed to in Zimbabwe through the mass media, film, radio and television. CHIPAWO is not only an acronym but it also has a Shona meaning namely “please give” or “give as well”. CHIPAWO is therefore all about sharing. CHIPAWO aims to enrich the cultural experience of Zimbabwean children by introducing them to the culture and performing arts of Zimbabwe, the region and the continent. The CHIPAWO pedagogy stresses the free expression of the children’s creativity and originality and the development of all-round versatility. CHIPAWO subscribes to a pedagogy in which the child is at the centre. Learning is creative and democratic. Every child counts. No child is rejected. Children are not only taught, they create, contribute and teach each other. CHIPAWO aims to and in actual fact does develop a confident child with a strong and individual personality, who is sure of his or her identity and can communicate, work with others and above all share with others. In CHIPAWO every child is important - no matter the gender, the ability or disability or the racial or class background. Since 1989, in the spirit of the principles and in pursuit of the objectives briefly delineated above, it has developed the following infrastructure and activities:

Overall organisation CHIPAWO is a registered Trust. Administration The CHIPAWO Administration is housed in rented offices and headed by the Administrator. Other full-time staff in the Administration are : the Book-keeper, Secretary/Receptionist, Wardrobe Mistress, Office Assistant/Driver and Gardener. Core Business CHIPAWO’s Core Business is its Arts Education for Development Programme, music, dance, drama and media, consisting of centres in 5 pre-schools; 15 Primary Schools (full programme); 1 Primary School (marimba only); 2 Secondary Schools (marimba only); 8 out-of-school centres sited at schools at the weekend; a special centre at Emerald Hill School for the Deaf; and 3 Advanced Performance groups, the Harare Junior Theatre, the Harare Youth Theatre and the Performance company. The Centres Officer supervises the centres, which are run by the Centre Co-ordinators and the Instructors and serviced by the Administration.

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Non-core business This consists of Programmes as follows:

1. Bringing CHIPAWO to More Children Designed to ensure that as many children as possible have access to CHIPAWO, it includes among other projects the Bursary Scheme (7 centres) and the National Expansion Project 2. Mwana Anokosha (The Child is Precious) In recognition of the fact that the child-as-child is important 3. Training and Performances The Advanced Performing Arts Certificate, the Advanced Media Arts Certificate (in the pipeline), the Instructors’ Certificate (in the pipeline), extracurricular festivals and contract performances 4. Sales and Marketing The Musical Instrument Manufacturing Project, Video sales and rentals, T-shirts and memorabilia

5. Media The Children’s Media Centre (digital and linear video, sound and studio facilities), video and sound services, training, children’s television and radio programmes and exchanges

Arts Education for Development CHIPAWO refers to the work it does with children and young people as Arts Education for Development. This is an important definition for it distinguishes CHIPAWO’s work with children and young people in the performing arts from that of other organisations with different aims and practice and clearly delineates exactly how and why CHIPAWO works with children and young people. The term Arts Education for Development begs the question - what is education? In the minds of many – and reflected as such in school curricula and the practice of many teachers – education is the process of mastering the principles of such subjects as English, Maths, Science and History so that the child can pass a written examination and in order to get a qualification and find a job. CHIPAWO believes that this is an aspect of education. But only an aspect of education. According to CHIPAWO, education is in its fullest sense the development of human beings who are equipped to live in society, understand it, contribute to it, ultimately, if possible, to enrich and improve it. Much of what is required to develop such human beings cannot be examined. According to this philosophy,

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examinations should be seen as only a fraction of what children prepare for in school. This where the arts educator comes in. CHIPAWO would urge that the argument for the performing arts in school should not only be for its inclusion in the examination syllabus. Yes, that can be done. But more importantly the performing arts are needed in school because they contribute to an essential part of the development of a human being. That is why CHIPAWO calls its work arts education for development. The three pillars Any complete and whole educational system should rest on what in CHIPAWO is referred to as “ the three pillars of education”. The first pillar is the ACADEMIC - what the child learns in the classroom - and this is largely intellectual or mental development. The second is the SPORTING - what they learn on the sports field - and this develops the physical. The third and often neglected pillar is the CULTURAL - arts education for development - and this should develop the entire human being - the intellect, the mind, the physical and then also the emotions, the imagination and the spirit. In other words, the whole child. Not only does it develop the whole child but it develops the child’s faculties at the same time, simultaneously, and what is more, it develops them in harmony. One says should because it is possible to do arts training and not be aware of the need to do this. This is the part that Arts Education for Development plays in the formal education system as it exists today in Zimbabwe and this is CHIPAWO’s argument why it should be taken seriously. But education does not only take place in the school - whether curricular or extra-curricular. Education takes place in the home and it takes place in recreation and in out-of-school activities. Arts education for development is a part of that education too. According to CHIPAWO, the development of the child is best seen as the development of society. It is no co-incidence that the aims and results of arts education for development are to such a large extent coincidental with the aims and desired results of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The rights of the child impact on society and its development in a number of ways: Child rights If one examines the education system, the media and Zimbabwean society as a whole, it is obvious that there is virtually no scope for children to express themselves or make their feelings and thoughts felt. At a time when children are particularly vulnerable and subject to many abuses, this is a serious disability.

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Through arts education and development, both on stage and through the media, children are empowered to make their voices heard. Civil Society CHIPAWO is an non-governmental organization involved in a partnership with government. By empowering non-governmental organisations to enter key areas such as education, the media, training and job creation, in partnership with as opposed to in opposition to government, civil society and democracy are widened and strengthened. Gender The performing arts and electronic media are an area where women can assert themselves and challenge the many stereotypes that inhibit their full and equal participation in social life. In arts education for development work the girl-child plays an almost dominant role and this, especially if translated to the media, can have a decisive impact in developing the potential of girls and by corollary women and have far-reaching social consequences. Democracy The pedagogy of arts education for development is fundamentally democratic and the development of group responsibility, independent decision-making and criticism results in the children sharpening their democratic skills and expectations. To sum up, CHIPAWO believes that: ! Its work has a place in schools both in the formal and the extra-curricular

timetable ! curricular education is only an aspect of education and in the wider

education that develops whole human beings such work should have a central place - hence it is both educational and developmental

! children are not only educated in schools but also out of schools and thus the work of organizations like CHIPAWO also contributes to their education in this way

! the development of the child is the development of society and Child Rights, Civil Society, Gender and Democracy can be cited as examples.

The CHIPAWO method All CHIPAWO’s core work, the sessions in music, dance and drama at its various centres, is done with pre-school or school-children either at the school as an extra-curricular activity in the afternoon or out of school during the evening or at weekends. The programme involves an integrated approach to music, dance and drama. In other words, every child learns and is creatively involved in all three arts. The following is the structure of the average session:

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1. Warm-up involving all the instructors and children (15-20 minutes) 2. Three ”periods” eg. 1 drama, 1 music and 1 dance (40 minutes each with a break of 15 minutes) 3. Presentations and discussion (15 to 20 minutes)

1. Warm-up The warm-up starts with one or two traditional CHIPAWO songs like "Welcome to CHIPAWO", "Che che kule" and what has virtually become the CHIPAWO anthem, "Gomo guru re Zimbabwe/CHIPAWO". These songs are accompanied by physical action or dance. Then follow some basic voice, breathing and body exercises, many of which are accompanied by drumming and singing. The warm-up ends with a number of songs and dances. The traditional CHIPAWO warm-up is both a functional part of the CHIPAWO workshop as well as being a ritual or rather part of the CHIPAWO ritual, which every child comes to expect and enjoy. Not only does it prepare the child physically, mentally and emotionally for the sessions to follow, it also achieves a number of other purposes:

1. It creates a sense of the CHIPAWO family as everyone, the uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters and children all take part.

(Note: Part of CHIPAWO's mission to strengthen contemporary African culture in the face of its erosion by the urban culture of the United States is to firmly establish the respectful recognition of age and relationship found in traditional African culture between generations whereby children refer to their elders as sister/brother if they are young adult and auntie/uncle if they are older and married with children. )

2. The warm-up sessions are used to introduce new songs so that by the end of the term the children have learnt and got used to a number of new songs.

3. They also reinforce the children's creativity and confidence as exercises are often introduced, explained and led by the children themselves.

2. Dance, drama and music sessions The children are divided up into groups either by age or the length of time they have been in CHIPAWO. The maximum complement for each group is 20 children but quite often the group ranges from 10 to 15.

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3. Presentations and discussion After their dance, drama and music sessions, the children and the instructors all come together again and each group presents something of what they have been working on during the workshop. After each presentation the children watching are asked to comment. The instructors attempt to broaden the critical discussion and guide it so that it is analytical and constructive. The development of dance in CHIPAWO At CHIPAWO’s foundation, there were four Co-ordinators – R.McLaren (Drama), F.Gezi (Music), Julie Frederikse (Administration) and Stephen Chifunyise (Dance). Stephen Joel Chifunyise is a Zimbabwean who grew up in Zambia, with a B.A. including theatre and theatre for development and an M.A. in Theatre Arts from University of California, Los Angeles. Chifunyise is not only a prolific playwright. He is also an accomplished drummer and dancer with a vast knowledge and experience of traditional dance and dance drama in Zambia and Zimbabwe. He set about developing a traditional dance and modern dance syllabus for CHIPAWO at its first centre based at Blakiston Primary School in Harare but attended by children from schools all over Harare. For the traditional dance programme he recruited dance instructors from the by then disbanded National Dance Company whom he had known as Director of Arts and Crafts in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture. The National Dance Company had been set up shortly after independence but with the coming of Economic Structural Adjustment it was one of the first casualties in Government. Many of the members of the company then got together to form Batanai Dance Company as a professional performing ensemble. Three dancers were recruited from Batanai – Elizabeth Takawira, Enock Majeza and Rogers Mukege – and they joined CHIPAWO as traditional dance instructors. Thus from the outset the traditional dance programme in CHIPAWO was influenced by the National Dance Company’s repertoire and aesthetic. Like most national dance companies set up in various African countries after independence the idea was to form a versatile company that could feature all the main traditional dances of the country at an acceptable international level of performance.

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What has therefore characterized the traditional dance syllabus in CHIPAWO from the outset has been that CHIPAWO children, unlike virtually all Zimbabwean children before them, were exposed to dances from all over Zimbabwe and not simply from one region. The determination to expand this repertoire and include dances from the Southern African region and Africa as a whole led to CHIPAWO being a greedy and appreciative recipient of the African dance experience. The now disbanded black British dance company, Kokuma, came to Zimbabwe and from them CHIPAWO’s most famous dance, called in CHIPAWO “Caribbean” and set to the traditional tune “Sarura Wako” on marimba, was borrowed. A Nigerian dance lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, Mrs Ekata Isibor, taught the CHIPAWO youth group a medley of Nigerian dances for the visit of Wole Soyinka to Zimbabwe and he watched the youth performing them while in the country. In similar fashion, dances from South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia were incorporated. CHIPAWO performance groups have performed at numerous international festivals, where they have met and interacted with black American, Ugandan and other children and they have similarly picked up dances from them. Though urban children were learning traditional dances in CHIPAWO, in actual fact outside CHIPAWO, especially those of the middle class, they were avid fans of dance forms from the United States, in particular hiphop. CHIPAWO was anxious not to alienate the children by refusing to recognize the dance forms that they already identified with and hiphop was originally the mainstay of the modern dance syllabus in CHIPAWO. It was the modern dance component of CHIPAWO’s programme that saw Clayton Ndlovu establish himself. As a young man he came from the south west of the country as an Ndebele dancer and joined the dance programme at the Ethnomusicology project at the Zimbabwe College of Music, playing a star role in the celebrated choreographer, Peggy Harper’s revival of her Nigerian dance piece, Alatangana. Ndlovu is now a CHIPAWO co-ordinator and a lecturer at the Zimbabwe College of Music. He has developed into possibly the premier indigenous choreographer in Zimbabwe. He also developed into the driving force in CHIPAWO’s dance performance achievements, which are discussed below. Another talent that was also nursed in CHIPAWO is that of Darlington Saungweme, who acquired increasing confidence and originality in the creation of ragga, rhumba and digong choreographies, featured in many of CHIPAWO’s stage and television performances. CHIPAWO’s policy in its development of modern dance education with children has been not to discourage the tendency to identify strongly with the popular dance idioms of the United States but to stress the need for originality and

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creativity. CHIPAWO did not at any time permit the practice of lipsyncing or of copying routines from music videos. Instead children were encouraged to create their own routines and to recognize that the contemporary dances of the region were also exciting to do. The situation at the present is that there is very little US dance influence left and rhumba, reggae, digong and kweito have taken over. As the CHIPAWO programme developed, new challenges emerged. In the beginning the intake of children was confined to those between age 7 and age 12. Then a special centre was opened for the youth, age 13 to 16, and also an infant or “Layiti” component for age 3 ½ to 6. A varied and graded syllabus in both traditional and modern dance was developed for the different age groups. Overall the following is the outline of the CHIPAWO approach to introducing children and young people to dance: Infants – movement is first introduced in tandem with elementary music participation eg. clapping and simple percussion - the idea being to accustom the infant to movement in rhythm. The movement may be free, idiosyncratic or orchestrated eg. clapping and moving from side to side. It is not long before the instructor can begin to introduce the first basic traditional dance step, that of the mbira dance. The infant is taught to sing one or two mbira songs such as “Kuenda mbire” . They accompany each other in the dance by singing the song. As the infant demonstrates the ability to co-ordinate movement and rhythm and remember basic variations a slightly more complicated dance is introduced, usually the Ndebele dance isitshikitsha or the catchy but quite difficult rhythm of the Shona rain dance mhande. In modern dance a similar approach is adopted but here the process is relatively easier at first because most of the children have seen a lot of such dancing on television and even at parties in the home. Most can do freestyle impromptu dancing to popular US, Congolese and Southern African music. Usually when the infants are working on a simply routine they are able to suggest their own movements and often a routine will include scope for solo improvisation. In addition to dancing the basic steps, usually either freely wherever the child wishes to dance or in a straight line, the older infant begins to master basic floor patterns, entrances and exits, moving up and downstage, circling, two lines intersecting etc. As the tradition of “layiti” performance developed not only in the internal CHIPAWO minifestivals and End-of-Year Concert but also in public, the infants developed a striking ability to perform with confidence, precision and verve.

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Juniors (primary school) – at this level the syllabus content is dramatically expanded not only in terms of dance repertoire but also of choreography. In traditional dance, in addition to dances learned as infants, the juniors will usually be introduced to the following basic traditional dances: dinhe, mbakumba and muchongoyo. When they have mastered these they will then be introduced to a variety of other traditional dances such as chinyambera, jaka, chokoto, chingomana and amabhiza. A similar process takes place in modern dance where the emphasis on hiphop is diversified to embrace jiti, kwasa kwasa, rhumba and Southern African urban jives. Advanced juniors and youth In addition to the goals of arts education for development, discussed below, the objective has been to develop a knowledge and appreciation of African traditional and modern dance, dancing skills, confidence and enjoyment and a basic dance vocabulary. When this has been achieved, the advanced juniors and youth are exposed to the elements of choreography and other uses of dance, such as creative dance and dance drama:

• Routines (layitis and elementary juniors) – learning a series of steps and stringing them together – where the position of the dancers in the dancing space or in relation to each other is not considered. Typically straight lines facing the audience.

• Elementary choreography (layitis and elementary juniors): maintaining lines but developing varied floor patterns

• Intermediate choreography (juniors, advanced juniors and youth): developing expressive variety with

o entrances and exits o different combinations of dancers onstage o breaking up straight lines and developing varied and irregular floor patterns

• Advanced choreography (advanced juniors and youth): developing dramatic content eg. situation, characters, venue, story, theme • Dance drama (advanced juniors and youth) – using dance to present a fully-fledged drama with varying use of mime and/or • Dance in drama/poetry (all groups) – dance sequences or choreographies that are performed within a play, drama or poetry performance

As explained above, CHIPAWO’s approach to the performing arts is an integrated one – so that the same child is exposed to different musical instruments and songs, drama, traditional and modern dance. It is therefore a natural consequence that dance is developed in tandem with music and drama and there is a high degree of co-operation and collaboration both in teaching as well as in performance between the different performing arts.

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Dance performance in CHIPAWO As stated above, CHIPAWO's Core Business is its Arts Education for Development work in music, dance, drama and media in the CHIPAWO Centres. Though the major and central goals of CHIPAWO’s core work in the centres are related to the process rather than the product, product is an important part of the process. Dancing to the very best of your ability is central to the development of the child and to prove this by showing what you can do to an audience of parents, family, friends and sometimes the general public. Thus performance is integrated into the process of arts education for development at the centres, like the annual minifestivals and End-of-Year Concert. The minifestivals take place in the last term of every CHIPAWO year – May to August. At these minifestivals three or four CHIPAWO centres take the stage together and show each other and the audience what they have achieved in a year’s work. From these performances items are selected in such a way as to ensure that every child has a fair chance to show a cross-section of what they have done in music, dance and drama and these items are then prepared for the End-of-Year Concert. Every year since 1989 the children of CHIPAWO have ended their year in CHIPAWO with a concert. Now taking place over two days, every child in CHIPAWO’s over 26 centres performs a variety of traditional dances, marimba and mbira items, plays and modern dances of all kinds. Selected items from the Concert are filmed to come out on television as the Dairibord Showcase, a CHIPAWO/ZBC television co- production. In addition to performance as part of the process in the CHIPAWO centres, CHIPAWO has a specialised and advanced Performance Programme, which is a very important ancillary to the training that children receive in the centres. Often children from the centres actually participate in the programme as CHIPAWO is contracted frequently to offer performances at all sorts of functions and often the Centres themselves provide the performances. However in order to take performance to an advanced level, two advanced performing arts groups were formed, the Harare Junior Theatre and the Harare Youth Theatre. Children and youth from the centres are recommended by the Centre Co-ordinators, auditioned and those selected are accepted as members and attend extra training sessions. Though groups from the centres also do so, these are in general the groups that showcase CHIPAWO talent and artistic excellence at public performances and festivals. In response to the need to continue to develop the talents of young people who have left school and in some cases joined the CHIPAWO teaching staff, CHIPAWO has also formed the CHIPAWO Performance Company for graduates

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and instructors in CHIPAWO. This is a fully professional group, which is being marketed as an international performing group. International festivals and tours participated in by CHIPAWO include the following: 1994 Blakiston CHIPAWO Centre, Chipo and the Bird, Harvest of Plays, Nairobi, Kenya 1995 Harare Junior Theatre, Something Useful, Children's Theatre Festival, Vejle, Denmark 1995 7th Rainbow Festival, Cape Town, South Africa 1996 Harare Junior Theatre, Vana Vanotamba, Images of Africa, Denmark 1996 Groombridge CHIPAWO Centre, Tamba, Children's Theatre Festival, Kuussankoski, Finland 1997 Hallingbury CHIPAWO Centre, Mutongi Gava (The Judge Jackal), World Festival of Children's Theatre, Hvidovre, Denmark 1998 Marlborough CHIPAWO Centre, Jari Mukaranga (I am also your wife), World Festival of Children's Theatre, Lingen, Germany 2000 Avondale CHIPAWO Centre, Jari Mukaranga (I am also your wife), World Fair, Hanover, Germany 2000 Harare Youth Theatre, Mbira, meetingplace 2000, Slagelse, Denmark 2000 Harare Junior Theatre, Dhongi ra Sabhuku Mangwende (Mangwende's Donkey), World Festival of Children's Theatre, Toyama, Japan 2000 Harare Junior Theatre, Vana Vanotamba II, tour of South China The CHIPAWO pedagogy as it applies to dance Stigma and status A crucial aspect of the CHIPAWO pedagogy is the fostering of pride in the beauty and value of indigenous African performing arts traditions. CHIPAWO sees this as an essential educational and developmental goal related closely to the development of self-confidence and a whole personality. The battle to win acceptance for the appreciation and practice of African traditional dance from, first, the children and, then, from their parents, friends, teachers and others has not been an easy one. That battle is by no means over. There is now a wide acceptance of it among CHIPAWO children themselves. However in many instances they face considerable pressure from their friends, as this extract from a collection of portraits on women and girls in CHIPAWO entitled Vasikana ve CHIPAWO by the well-known Zimbabwean journalist, Ruth Gabi, reveals:

ΑWhen I went for form one to the Convent in 1998, I told the girls that I was in Chipawo and a number of them eyed me up and down and exclaimed: ΑPshhh ---- Gwash≅ in disgust. To them I was totally out of my mind to be participating in something they considered so rural and traditional.

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Not only do the children who learn traditional dance in CHIPAWO face peer pressure of this kind, CHIPAWO’s emphasis on traditional dance also provokes a lot of hostility from some parents and school teachers who believe as Christians that traditional dance is heathen, associated with the ancestral spirits and therefore anti-Christian. CHIPAWO had to withdraw from the crèche at which it established its very first “Layiti” centre owing to objections by parents who felt that CHIPAWO’s activities were linked to evil spirits. One headmaster of a private Christian primary school refused to allow CHIPAWO to open a centre at his school because he felt it was unchristian. This particular headmaster was not only Christian. He was also of European origin and his aversion to CHIPAWO’s traditional cultural content was not only based in his Christian beliefs but also the almost universal contempt that Zimbabweans of European descent entertain for traditional Zimbabwean culture. Dance and class – before CHIPAWO began its campaign to raise the status of traditional dance amongst children in Zimbabwe, it was widely assumed that traditional dance would only be danced by rural children or those in the so-called high density suburbs (euphemism for the former black townships). CHIPAWO’s first centre was established at a primary school in the well-off Harare suburb of Milton Park and the majority of the children that made up the first enrolment were from middle class families. So here were children of the middle class, learning to dance traditional dance. Their instructors however were from a quite different class – and they were used to working with children from the same class as theirs. This meant they were used to a performance energy and ways of teaching quite alien to their new pupils. The instructors were not used to children who refused, who sulked, who complained when something was boring. The instructors responded by treating them with kid gloves. Naturally the instruction did not get very far. In the beginning it was just enough that their pampered little charges could execute a few clumsy traditional dance steps for their proud parents and the instructors to applaud together. But gradually cultural exchanges with dance groups in the ghetto and a slowly emerging tradition of improving performance demonstrated that children of the middle class can produce equally energetic levels of performance and add some other qualities of their own in the process. This interaction of class became even more intriguing when CHIPAWO opened its first bursary centre in the high density suburb of Mbare and children from very poor backgrounds began to exchange and share stages with their brothers and sisters from the better- heeled quarters.

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The instructors meanwhile found ways of combining the need for discipline, demanding drilling and exhortation in the preparation of performance with the need to give children space, freedom and opportunities for creativity. Balancing instruction with creativity – in the effort to ground the children in the basics of traditional dance, preserving a balance between instruction and creativity requires careful attention and a great deal of training. In CHIPAWO the process of elementary dance instruction involves two basic methods:

• teaching children the steps, where there is little room for their own creativity. This would apply in particular to traditional dances in first stages of picking them up. Even where the children are taught routines and choreographies which have been devised for them by the instructor, there is always scope for their own creativity as the last “level” in learning to perform them.

This level is the dancer`s input. How they style the movements according to their own approach, creativity, imagination and confidence but it should not be far removed from what they have been taught in level two. – CHIPAWO Dance Module 1

• inviting and facilitating their creative involvement - in coming up with movements, solos, scope for improvisation and fully fledged routines and choreographies

The creative tension between these two exigencies, a reflection of the CHIPAWO pedagogy, was noted recently in a SIDA-commissioned evaluation of CHIPAWO’s arts education for development work by Prof. P.Mlama of FAWE, formerly of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania when she wrote:

It was clear from observing the CHIPAWO sessions that the instructors are often struggling to achieve this balance between meeting the demands of the pedagogy and attaining good artistic quality. For example, some instructors did well in giving the children the opportunity to contribute ideas to the creative process. But after the ideas were given the instructors did not seem to have adequate skills in moulding the ideas into the creation in a way that could make the production better.

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CHIPAWO is as yet so preoccupied with ensuring that all the children are thoroughly grounded in the basic dance vocabulary that not enough attention has been given to developing creative skills, choreographical inventiveness and experimentation in different forms of dance. The tendency has been that at the level of the centre, most dance instruction is aimed at building the base. It is only in the advanced performing groups that other dimensions of dance creativity are explored or at the annual Christmas Show, where a major, full-length music, dance and drama spectacular on the theme of “Christmas in Africa” is rehearsed and staged in about a week. This is only possible because all the children possess that sound basic dance vocabulary and their talents can be choreographed in a major show in a relatively short period. Another danger that lurks in this approach is that the practice of traditional dance instruction can easily slip into what Prof. Mlama calls “flagging the African cultural identity”. She writes:

The dance pieces created reflect the performances of the national dance troupes of the sixties whereby the main purpose of the dance creation was to merely show what the dances of that particular nation looked like.

She goes on to challenge CHIPAWO:

Can the children, for example, use the dance movements more towards telling their own stories about their own lives?

It is true that the fact that the history of CHIPAWO’s leading traditional dance instructors is that they were in actual fact members of the National Dance Company and their practice at the level of elementary traditional dance instruction reflects this. However their experience in Batanai Dance Company and in particular their work with Clayton Ndlovu has moved them a long way from their past limitations. It is in the work of Clayton Ndlovu (see below) that Prof. Mlama’s challenge is met in CHIPAWO. However the criticism remains valid that at the elementary level there is too much “flagging” and not enough creative and original exploration of both traditional and modern dance. Mwana Anokosha - (The child is precious) This maxim is at the heart of the CHIPAWO pedagogy and it determines many crucial aspects of CHIPAWO’s practice in the teaching of music, dance and drama. For instance, except in the advanced performance groups where performance is the frank and avowed objective, CHIPAWO pedagogy avoids ever diminishing the confidence and belief in one’s self of a child by removing a child who is not good or is failing to master or even perform a particular part well in favour of a “star” who can do it brilliantly.

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This is a very difficult principle to establish and ensure that it is adhered to by instructors, who come from a society and have experienced an educational system where the child who is not obviously good, cringes into mediocrity while the gifted child is constantly bathed in limelight. Instructors constantly lapse, especially when the time for end-of-year performances come round. The struggle has been to make it clear that the End-of-Year Concert is a display of what has happened to the children during the year rather than a demonstration of how good they are at performing, though that is of course an important element. Instructors are encouraged to empower the children to talk about their work and every child gets a chance to show what they have managed to accomplish. That is what gives the CHIPAWO End-of-Year Concert its particular fascination as children of all different ages and disabilities proudly show off their achievements. It is as much if not more an exercise in child development than in child performance. Striking a balance between the need for all the children to grow and the special needs of particularly talented children is another pitfall and CHIPAWO clearly errs on the side of the former. Particularly talented children do have a chance to do advanced performance work in the Harare Junior Theatre and the Harare Youth Theatre but at the centre there is often a danger of their not being sufficiently challenged. This is partly got round by the CHIPAWO philosophy of “sharing”. Those with skills and talents share with others and so children teach children. However it is another area where there is room for innovative improvement. One should not hesitate to admit that what is propgated at the level of theory, is not what always happens at the level of practice. As Prof. Mlama wrote in her evaluation, “whereas it is obvious that CHIPAWO has adopted a suitable pedagogy for artistic creativity for children the effective application of this pedagogy poses a number of challenges”. The girl-child A final example of how the CHIPAWO pedagogy informs the practice of teaching dance as well as other performing arts, is that relating to gender. As all children are important, it follows that in dance instruction all children are given a chance and those that are slow in developing co-ordination or internalising movement, are encouraged and supported. It also follows that the general discrimination against the girl-child that is prevalent in the educational system, often at home and also in society, cannot be tolerated.

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In fact, the performing arts are a field of human endeavour in which the girl-child often excels – and no more than in the field of dance. Though boys can have as much natural talent as girls in dance, many of them, especially those of the middle class, develop inhibitions as they grow older. Some of them believe that dance is a woman’s activity. Others feel that by dancing in front of girls they are making fools of themselves. This allied to society’s attitudes to traditional dance, poses special problems. These problems are less severe when it comes to modern dance, where US and South Africa-derived popular dance forms are more acceptable as they are part of the general teen culture inculcated by television, music videos and tapes. This often means that boys will naturally gravitate to marimba and drums while they expect girls to do the dancing. Sometimes they do not gravitate but actually take forcefully what they believe to be rightfully theirs. The girls respond to this show of male assertiveness by protesting in some cases but ultimately acquiescing. This is a tendency, along with other gender discriminating tendencies, that CHIPAWO has taken determined steps to counteract – by forming all girls’ marimba ensembles or ensuring that both girls and boys play marimba and drums together while the dances follow the same pattern. The boys now understand this aspect of the CHIPAWO pedagogy and its acceptance helps them to understand the need for challenging other aspects of behaviour which evidence similar elements of gender discrimination. The CHIPAWO aesthetic: examples It has already been conceded that at the level of infants and elementary junior dance, the CHIPAWO policy of ensuring that children are thoroughly grounded in the basic traditional and modern dance disciplines, has its limitations and this is an area in which CHIPAWO’s instructor training methods and practice on the ground will have to improve and advance – without of course losing the advantages of the original strategy. CHIPAWO is fortunate however that there is no shortage of precedent in the organization for alternative, more creative and more artistically innovative dance models. Taking the lead here is the work of Clayton Ndlovu in his productions choreographed for the Harare Junior Theatre, the Harare Youth Theatre and for major CHIPAWO productions such as Welcome to the World”, a full-length nativity dance drama and aspects of a number of CHIPAWO Christmas Shows.

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This work, accompanied as it was by a high level of performance expertise though danced by children and young people, not only serves as a model for the aesthetic and pedagogy of CHIPAWO but also as an inspiration and a model for dance choreographers in Zimbabwe as a whole. The following are short descriptions of some examples of Ndlovu’s achievement: Welcome to the World As a nativity dance drama, the plot obviously relates the story of the birth of Jesus. This is where the combined talents of CHIPAWO’s music, dance and drama departments and the integrated approach combined to assist the choreographer. The drama team developed a script in which the story begins with perhaps one of the most influential dances in history – that of Salome at the court of Herod. The scene is used to introduce the coming of Jesus and thus a dance rendition of the story is introduced through dance. From there we flash back to early dawn in a Zimbabwean country homestead, where the family of Josepha is introduced and the annunciation takes place. There is the journey to Bethlehem, which is a typical Zimbabwean “growth point” and Josepha and Maria are given a place to stay in an empty garage. They use half a petrol barrel as the manger. The most exciting scene is the coming of three kings with their entourages and the presentation of gifts. Each king comes from a neighbouring country - South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi - and they dance the dances of their country before the baby Jesus. The dance drama is accompanied by mbira, marimba, drums and taped umbhaqanga music. Ndlovu showed himself quite at home in a variety of styles, with the drama at the growth point (Bethlehem) complete with all its typical characters and danced to popular umbhaqanga and the rousing Three Kings presentation and Finale the high points of an inventive and highly original dance epic. Chinyambera/Games Ndlovu once stated that he would never again work on a traditional dance. This was a way of expressing his frustration with what Prof. Mlama referred to as “flagging” the traditional culture. He wanted to see Zimbabwean choreographers breaking free and creating new and original choreographies where the traditional heritage was just that – a heritage of rhythms, movement and themes which would provide the vocabulary for creative new dance.

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When CHIPAWO was asked to present an item at the annual ballet teachers’ Stars of Tomorrow Concert at the Reps Theatre, bastion of the white minority and its culture in Harare, Ndlovu decided to present a dance duo of one traditional dance and an original choreography. The traditional dance he chose was chinyambera, a hunting dance from Masvingo. The original choreography was a piece based on the games children play in the rural setting and in the townships, set to a number by the South African group, Soweto Strings. Conventionally, Zimbabwean traditional dance groups set drums and hosho, where used, upstage centre and the dancers and those accompanying the dance form a semicircle behind the drums. Those whose turn it is to dance then come dancing out from behind the drums, perform and then return to join the others. CHIPAWO has adapted traditional dance to performances that use entrances and exits. Accompanying instruments are placed in different stage locations depending on the demands of the dance and the audience. CHIPAWO has also experimented with using marimba to accompany dances not previously accompanied by marimba. So Ndlovu’s chinyambera began with marimba and drum. Three boys enter and dance the hunting sequence, ending up on their backs downstage left, right and upstage centre. They now use the leg rattles to accentuate the percussion as the girls, who have been playing marimba, come forward dancing an original step and singing the accompanying song. They then take their position in the centre of the boys, each pair facing a pair and they dance, assisted by drums and the percussion of the boys’ leg rattles. After the final climax of their dance celebrating the trophies of the hunt, three girls are left onstage, down centre. Blackout, dim spot on the three girls onstage. As the Soweto Strings music swells in, the spot comes up and they begin dancing, to be joined by the others as the whole stage is lit. They then depict in dance a number of children’s games in a variety of patterns and combinations, bringing the house down at the end with a vivacious township jive and exit. Thus Ndlovu has transformed the basic and very beautiful chinyambera dance by introducing marimba and song in an unexpected way, revising the choreography and then linking it skillfully with a related but quite different style – the link being the traditional mime of the hunting dance and that of the traditional children’s games.

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Dhongi ra Sabhuku Mangwende (Mangwende’s Donkey) The script of this original Shona comic opera was devised again by the children and instructors of the drama team and based on a contemporary popular song about a donkey that runs away with the grain on the way to the mill. Ndlovu demonstrated his versatility by composing the music and then choreographing the movement and dances that accompany, underscore and intersperse the singing. In Dhongi he captures both in song as well as movement the different characteristics of his characters, the central lumbering but moving figure of the overworked donkey, his friend, the sprightly and rather sly dog-about-town in a rural setting, Machena, the rock-rabbits, the birds, the cows and then the Headman, his wife and the village community, with once again rousing ensembles at the end of the first scene and in the finale and curtain call. Conclusion As a case study in teaching dance to children in Zimbabwe, the CHIPAWO experience is sure to touch of many issues of relevance to the teaching of dance to children on the continent. It reveals perhaps what at least one organization has been able to achieve in one country, Zimbabwe. It may suggest possible approaches and at the same time share with others working in the field both the possibilities and advantages as well as the dangers, pitfalls and shortcomings of those approaches. By doing so, no doubt CHIPAWO and other Zimbabweans will benefit from responses to the CHIPAWO experience from practitioners in other African countries just as those in other African countries may benefit from CHIPAWO. A crucial issue, not perhaps adequately discussed above, is the relationship between the teaching of dance to children as pursued by Government and programmes by non-governmental organizations like CHIPAWO. All CHIPAWO’s core programme sessions in music, dance and drama take place in schools. And all children that attend CHIPAWO are schoolchildren. Though the Ministry of Education is fully aware of this and is kept informed as to CHIPAWO’s activities, the programme has been facilitated by agreements with individual school heads and the children’s parents. There is no formal and official co-operation agreement or partnership between Government and CHIPAWO. In fact, though CHIPAWO made a submission to the commission on Education, Government’s response to the Commission and its plans to introduce the performing arts in the formal school system in no way involve CHIPAWO and there has been no communication by Government with the organization.

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It remains to be seen whether Government’s approach to the teaching of dance to children in the formal education system will in the future be conducted by Government as a purely Government programme or whether Government will adopt a policy which views non-governmental organizations like CHIPAWO as partners in the programme and the non-formal arts education system as a complementary resource. RESOURCES Vasikana ve CHIPAWO, Gabi.R (CHIPAWO, 1999) Evaluation of the Children’s Performing Arts Workshop (CHIPAWO), Mlama.P, (SIDA, 2001) CHIPAWO In-house Publications

Introduction to CHIPAWO The Childhood of CHIPAWO

CHIPAWO Videos

Dhongi ra Sabhuku Mangwende (Mangwende’s Donkey), 6th World Festival of Children’s Theatre, Toyama, Japan Welcome to the World, Scenes I – 3 (1997) The CHIPAWO Christmas Show (1996) The Spirit of Christmas (1998)

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