After greater than 4 months of rehearsals, Rwanda’s Intayoberana Cultural Troupe is getting ready to stage its seventh main cultural live performance, “Gira u Rwanda,” at Kigali Serena Lodge on Saturday, July 25.
The present will deliver collectively the troupe’s kids’s, ladies’s and males’s teams in a manufacturing organizers describe as their most bold but.
Constructed round conventional dance, music and storytelling, the live performance is designed to showcase Rwanda’s cultural heritage in entrance of a stay viewers whereas giving youthful performers an opportunity to be taught from the troupe’s long-standing work.
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Intayoberana vice chairman Emmanuel Ndayizeye stated the live performance displays the group’s broader mission of preserving Rwandan identification and passing it on to the following technology.
“We began as simply three members and slowly grew into a big cultural troupe,” he stated. “Rwandan identification is a part of who we’re, and we feature it with us wherever we go.”
Based on July 17, 2014, Intayoberana started by mixing conventional Rwandan dance with fashionable and different African types earlier than narrowing its focus to cultural preservation.
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Through the years, it has grown into a bigger organisation with separate efficiency teams for youngsters, men and women. The kids’s group is named Uruyange, the ladies’s group as Ibirezi and the lads’s group as Amasonga.
The troupe first drew wider consideration after performing alongside singer Butera Knowless through the Primus Guma Guma Tremendous Star competitors, a televised music contest that helped introduce the group to a nationwide viewers.
Since then, Intayoberana has staged six themed productions: Umugani wa Nyabwugu na Nyabucureri, Umwana ni Nkundi – Umwana ni Umutware, Twambaye Ikirezi, Urizihiye Rwanda, Igitaramo Iwacu and Akanigi Kanjye.
“Gira u Rwanda” marks its seventh large-scale manufacturing.
Greater than dance
For member Ivan Nyarwaya, the live performance is the results of months of labor. He stated rehearsals started greater than 4 months in the past because the troupe labored to construct a present that will really feel full from begin to end.
“Now we have been getting ready for this live performance for a very long time,” he stated. “We began rehearsals greater than 4 months in the past as a result of we wished each efficiency to be particular. Now we have ready many surprises for the viewers.”
Nyarwaya stated his curiosity in conventional dance started early, impressed by his father’s love for movies of Intore dancers, the historic Rwandan dance model identified for its exact motion, drums and warrior-inspired choreography.
He began dancing in Major One in 2011 and joined Intayoberana when it was based in 2014.
He stated the troupe has given him greater than efficiency abilities.
“I’m joyful I began studying tradition at a younger age as a result of it taught me about our ancestors, the lives they lived and our identification as Rwandans,” he stated.
That very same sense of continuity runs by way of the expertise of Hyguette Umurerwa, who joined the troupe at age 10 and has remained with it by way of college.
“I joined in 2014 after I was nonetheless in major faculty, and in the present day I’ve accomplished college whereas nonetheless being a part of the troupe,” she stated. “It has been a lovely journey.”
Umurerwa stated her curiosity in conventional dance got here from household roots. Her grandparents, who as soon as lived in Burundi, additionally carried out conventional dances. She stated Intayoberana helped her carry that legacy ahead.
“It turned a part of who I’m,” she stated.
She additionally pushed again towards the concept that conventional dance is just for folks with pure expertise or countless stamina.
“It solely feels exhausting to somebody who doesn’t take pleasure in it,” she stated. “When you find it irresistible, it turns into a part of your life. 4 months of preparation could sound lengthy, however for us it’s regular as a result of we construct each efficiency step-by-step. It isn’t exhausting however filled with classes.”
For Umurerwa, these classes embrace persistence, self-discipline and confidence.
She stated the troupe teaches members the way to carry out, but in addition the way to behave and deal with life past the stage.
“I spend extra hours with members of Intayoberana than I do at residence,” she stated. “Now we have a coach who teaches us not solely the way to dance but in addition the way to behave and face real-life challenges.”
She stated the troupe has opened doorways for a lot of members, together with younger individuals who could not have imagined dance might result in alternatives or earnings.
“Intayoberana has helped many people attain locations we by no means anticipated to achieve,” she stated. “Our coach doesn’t solely practice us to develop into higher dancers but in addition higher folks.”
The troupe can be encouraging mother and father to permit kids to hitch cultural teams, saying the expertise can assist younger folks develop self-discipline, identification and sensible abilities. Umurerwa stated kids don’t want prior expertise to begin.
“No person ought to concern becoming a member of as a result of they’ve by no means danced earlier than,” she stated. “Anybody can be taught.”
She added that conventional dance may help younger performers financially.
“I’m nonetheless a scholar, however dance helps me meet a few of my bills, together with transport,” she stated. “Should you take it critically, it could develop into a supply of earnings.”
The “Gira u Rwanda” live performance begins at 4 p.m. at Kigali Serena Lodge. Advance tickets price Rwf10,000, Rwf20,000 and Rwf25,000, whereas a desk for eight prices Rwf200,000.
On the gate, tickets will price Rwf15,000, Rwf25,000 and Rwf30,000, with tables priced at Rwf250,000.
