Quality theatrical show as East Africa music festival ends
A school from Karamoja, Uganda, during the official opening ceremony of the East Africa Music and Drama Festival at Wanyange Girls School Jinja on August 27, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Kenyan schools portrayed uniformity and clear formations that were entertaining.
- On the other hand, Ugandan teams danced with admirable energy and passion.
Young Kenyan thespians wowed Uganda audiences with quality and message laden performances as the East African Music, Dance and Drama Festival concluded at the Busoga College in Jinja City, Uganda
Senende High School from Kakamega brought the roof down with a special arrangement of Sauti Sol’s hit song Sura Yako.
Getting the melody right and beautiful blending of voices the group had scintillating dances that brought true meaning to the lyrics.
Mercy Deborah, Ruth Joan, Britney Katete, Gesuina Orido and Tania Wakandu led Buruburu Girls to rapturous crescendo as they rendered Jalupo, a cultural creative dance that depicts a woman who overcomes social taboo to economic independence, in this creation coordinated by Whitney Mumela.
“It has been a great experience not just performing here in Uganda but also enjoying the beautiful undulating landscape of Jinja city that is the source of the Nile,” said Orido who takes the role of the doctor in the dance.
Captivated the audience
Ngenia High School, Fesbeth High School, Friends School Kamusinga and Shadrach Kimalel Mixed Day also performed.
St Luke’s Kanunda from Kisii captivated the audience with a solo dance produced by Peter Nyamoti and choreographed by Duncan Matoke.
The story of pascal’s symphony is about a father who believes in success in exams, not talent development, his son is a gifted guitar player and he succeeds in life.
Fesbeth High School staged a moving play Mosaic that implores parents to support their children to pursue their area of competence and interest during the East African Music, Dance and Drama Festival at Jinja School. It suggests that parents should not force their children to take a career path.
Energy and passion
The play also advocates that it is false to believe that a student fails in summative evaluation is useless.
The other genre of dances presented in the festival included the Kenyan modern creative dance presented by Kangaru Boys, the creative dance by the Ugandan schools, very well executed by Mary Hill Girls of Uganda. The rest were folk dances presented by both the Kenyan and Ugandan schools.
In the dances, the Kenyan schools seemed to portray a reasonable degree of uniformity and clear formations that were expressive and entertaining.
On the other hand, it was easy to observe that the Ugandan teams though danced with admirable energy and passion, lacked in uniformity and clarity in patterns. This could be attributed to the large casts that were on their stage. Some folk dance had as many as 50 dancers.
The Kenyan team, made up of more than 600 students, teachers, drama trainers and Ministry of Education officials, departed from Jinja on Saturday at 5am.
