‘Broadway’ comes to Zim

27 Nov, 2016 - 00:11 0 Views
‘Broadway’ comes to Zim

The Sunday Mail

Takudzwa Chihambakwe —
HARARE International School was the place to be last week for all those who love dance, as award-winning choreographer Timikha Fisher led her troops from Breakthrough Productions in staging an amazing show dubbed “Magic On Broad Way”.

The phenomenal production is testament as to why Fisher was awarded the Best Female Dancer accolade at the 2016 National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) — she really knows how to get individuals to ooze out inimitable moves that touch the soul of the audience, regardless of age.

“Finally, six months of preparation paid off,” said Fisher after the breathtaking performance.

“Our main aim with this production was to come up with something original, but still keep the classic music and themes of Broadway. So we incorporated a story line of a little girl who dreams of dancing on Broadway and with a little help from her fairy godmother realises that can all be achieved and I believe we gave our audience a unique memorable show.

“The cast consists of professionally trained dance students, who use various classic dance styles to celebrate all of Broadway’s biggest productions such as ‘Chicago’, ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats’, and ‘Dream Girls’, among many others,” she added.

Fisher said she enjoyed working with the “energetic and committed team” that consisted of toddlers to young adults.

Besides the seamless routines, one factor that makes this production the most outstanding in 2016 when compared to other dance shows such as “Ballet Bouquet” and “Bollywood Extravaganza” is that of the lovely costumes the dancers were donning.

Before they began dancing, the majority of the crowd would have already been blown away by their exquisite costumes. The other element, which made this production different from the rest was the incorporation of vocalists.

Remember, the crowd had already been dazzled by the well-sychronised dance routines complemented by lovely costumes — adding sweet vocals too, that was just delicacy.

The vocalists took the production to a whole new level and made it feel as though the audience was really on Broadway — their vocal control was exceptional, each one knew their range and stuck to it, producing a technically robust set.

Highlighting some of the challenges she faces, Fisher said, “I have only done one production this year because it is difficult to do more than one, as shows are very expensive and without the backing of an audience or sponsorship it becomes very costly.

“However, no matter how hard things are, I try to stage one production each year. I am hoping that as the company grows this number will also grow, and hopefully we will reach two or three productions a year.”

She added: “Another challenge we have is that the younger generation relates the word ‘ballet’ to boring and we are trying our best to come up with shows that are very modern, and we are trying to encourage all ages to watch and support the arts.

“However, I am so lucky to work with such incredibly talented team of singers and dancers. They definitely know how to bring out something for everyone in the audience regardless of age or gender.”

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