Story Colette Musanyera
THE need for dance practitioners to be armed with arts management skills and financial literacy was high on the agenda during the graduation ceremony of dance practitioners who completed training in Performing Arts, Business and Digital Distribution.
The event held in Harare this Wednesday, saw 60 practitioners from various dance ensembles receiving certificates after completing courses in areas including arts management and financial literacy, artistic freedom and decent work booking, tour management and digital distribution.
“We are excited about this development. This initiative has opened our eyes especially on issues pertaining to contracts, booking and tour management which are key aspects in our line of trade.”
The brains behind the programme, Taurai Moyo of Chenhaka Trust, outlined some of the challenges being faced in the sector, which prompted him to come up with the training initiative.
“We discovered through a survey that there are challenges in the arts sector especially the dance fraternity. These challenges include arts management, financial literacy and tax issues. Those challenges are what prompted us to embark on this project,” he said.
Guest of honour at the event, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe Director, Dr Nicholas Moyo reckons creatives must be equipped with such skills since lack of comprehensive management training, hampers the prosperity of the arts and creative sector.
“Our dancers underwent a training programme 3 weeks ago where they received training on financial literacy, digital distribution, decent work booking and artistic freedom. These are requisite skills for artists because the absence of such skills negatively affects their craft,” said Moyo.
The event saw dance practitioners from several provinces being honoured with certificates.
