TOP Jamaican dancehall musician Sean Paul is set to return to Zimbabwe to perform alongside other celebrated international musicians Salif Keita, PJ Pauls and Omarion at the inaugural annual One Dream Dance festival (Odd) in July.
Entertainment Reporter
The festival running from July 30 to August 3, will take place at Old Georgians Sports Club.
In an interview with NewsDay, event organiser Josh Saunyama said the artistes were coming to add weight to the showcase.
“Odd is mainly a schools dance festival which will have 31 schools and colleges participating. International acts are only coming in to add weight to the festival,” he said.
Saunyama said schools would participate in line with continental themes.
“The festival will have schools grouped in four to represent different continents namely Africa, Asia, America while Europe and Australia are branded as one,” he said.
“We will have four stages, all under the above mentioned names, branded to their cultures while our fifth stage will be the Global Stage, a meeting place for all continents.”
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The Global Stage will host international dance groups during the day and the headline acts in the evening.
Saunyama said international dance groups would also take part.
“We have two groups from England, one from United States, one from India, one from Israel and another from China, all dancing their famed cultural dances.”
Odd have already deployed five choreographers who specialise in different dances to work with schools in coming up with routines.
“Our choreographers have been working with the students since February and come July, we will have a beautiful showcase,” he said.
Kudzai Seremwe, who is also part of the organising team, said the festival was aimed at establishing a dance curriculum in schools.
“We want dance to be taken as a serious art and entertainment rather than its current position where it is used only to support music,” Seremwe said.
He said the festival was also set up to establish a meeting place for different world cultures.
“We have people from different continents and cultures in Zimbabwe so we aim to create a place where they can learn to appreciate each others’ culture,” he said.
