Local dancers to gain international exposure

International dance club Chez Ntemba has announced plans to connect local dancers who excel in the monthly K120 000 (US$300) Chez Ntemba dancing competition to foreign artists.

Chez Ntemba Blantyre manager Jean Numbi Kayembe disclosed this early this week when giving an update on the next dancing competition.

Kayembe said they have details of the previous winners in the competition and negotiations are underway with South African-based musicians and choreographers to work with the budding dancers.

“We introduced the dancing competition to create fun for the youths while keeping them occupied over the weekend. However, the talent that has been displayed at the competition has impressed me when I compare it with what we see outside Malawi. I want to take advantage of this to connect only the best dancers in the monthly competition to dancers outside Malawi and I will begin with South African artists,” said Kayembe.

He added that plans are underway to organise the top three of each group to have tailor-made training session before they face foreign dancers.

“We are not too far from it, what lacks is exposure. We have been inviting DJs to play music at our clubs and recently we had Channel O DJs. If we are to benefit from such artists, we need to involve our local artists in the programme to directly work with the artists. If it is a band and has dancing team, we need to have our dancers in the team. That is what I am fighting for to expose Malawi talent,” he said.

So far, the competition, which is in its fourth month, has produced three top four dancers who will be the first to be linked to foreign artists.

Meanwhile, the competition’s manager DJ Trigger said the November competition starts on Sunday.