SiMbA’
is a word from the Shona or Swahili language, spoken by the Bantu
people of Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa. It translates as POWER
/LION .Simbarashe Norman Fulukia a.k.a ''Simba'' established the SiMbA
aRts Project in June 2006 and has been growing steadily ever since.Simba Dance Ensemble (SIDE).Like the abbreviation of the company ''SIDE'' the company goal is to stand SIDE by SIDE as One people, with One heart,One love ,One Universe sharing One vision .
Simba initiative encompasses 2 company's:
The
SiMbA ARts Project is a school, festival, dance company and a
community resource fuelled by a passion for excellence in dance.
- Through our school, the Dance Project at SiMbA aRts
, we are able to build and strengthen our connection to the
Mbare,Harare community with classes, workshops, and informal
performances.
- With the SiMbA Afromix Festival, we bring dance to audiences of all kinds
throughout the state and we play a leadership role both state wide and nationally.
We offer outreach classes in every community the Festival visits.
- Additionally, with the SiMbA aRts Initiative,
we set a standard in the area for professionalism in performance.
Our
aim is to expand the field of dance through a broad range of artistic
and educational programs by training dancers, building audiences and
nurturing leadership for the future.
Simba Dance Ensemble
Mission Statement
Overview
The mission of Simba Dance is to provide transformational experiences through the creation, performance, and teaching of dance that fire the imagination and celebrate the human spirit.
African Dance and Culture
Explore the African dance technique through a variety of movements based on traditional practices on the continent of Mother Africa. Learn movements that reflect the lives of a people, the culture of a society, and songs, stories, and drum patterns that uplift the soul of an identity.
''One people with different colors,One Universe,One heart,One Love,One vision''
-Simbarashe Norman Fulukia
We deem it human to share what Africa has to offer – a smile on your face and goodness in your hearts. We are only servants of the tradition.
There are many repertories but we share Zimbabwean folk dances and the Southern African region, West,East and Central Africa. We also create new (Contemporary)choreography and songs within the African idioms . We create these within the traditional idioms in order to keep the tradition of the people alive.
Objectives
- To uphold the diverse indigenous cultures of Africa, of over 500 million people with thousands of ethnic groupings from the continent and the Diaspora.
- To research and look at ways of development, thereby maintaining the appreciable hue of the unique cultures of many ethnicities across Africa, looking at the categories of Southern Africa, East Africa, Central and West Africa.
- We tell our story through movement that connects nature to songs that unfold the spirits of the universe, rhythms, melodies, and ululations that touch the very fabric of humanity.
- To serve as a window into the ethnology of the land and its people, to uphold the culture and tradition with integrity.
- To promote, educate and put something in place for posterity. We tell our story because it is good to tell your story.
- To promote diversity within the single vision of African Performance.
- We perform our art forms with passions; passions of happiness, joy, the sweat of life, and the rhythms that make your heart jump. This is fueled by love, peace, harmony, truthfulness, honesty, and team effort.
- We use music and dance as a medium to discourage society from violence or anything that leads to disharmony, and thereby fostering anti-bullying in schools and any organization, and generally to educate the consciousness of human thinking to respect and honour all humans on earth without any taxonomy.
- It is inherent that the resource of oral tradition sharing is very important and paramount to our modes of teaching, which is lively and very spontaneous. Individuals are spontaneously taught many elements of the music and dance, which is one phenomenon, from a traditional perspective without being compartmentalized.
- We create contemporary works as well, on a different level and context, to push the boundaries of today’s generation within the idioms of the Motherland performance.
- To document existing and to create new children’s and teenagers’ games and songs, as well as the adult versions.
- To tour the world with the art forms, thereby educating and exploring what is meant by African performance performed by a diverse group of people from around the world. In effect, SIDE represents the world, and it could be called Universe Dance Ensemble. If it is true that the source of humanity comes from Africa, then when we call it Simba African Dance Ensemble, it implies Universe Dance Ensemble. Anyone from any part of the world, any age, any orientation, is welcome to partake in SIDE activities, because we serve the human needs, not one specific ethnic group, no theoretical perspective, just humans is the key.
Disclaimer
We aim at retrieving the oral tradition. In the course of doing that, we are still in process. Tradition is dynamic, it is growing. What you are reading today is not blocked in stone. We do not canonize our artform. As of the time of typing, it is still growing, because it is a living art. The life of the people is the artform. In an attempt to do research, we welcome any comments and suggestions that will champion the expansion of this database among others, as a contribution to the creation of awareness of African performing arts.
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