20 June 2009
A hip-hop dance event, Battle of the Year (BOTY) will be staged in Zimbabwe sometime in August after a local dance festival organiser clinched the rights to host this year's event.
BOTY is a platform for unique break dancing, preservation of the hip-hop culture and an opportunity for youths to express themselves artistically in a peaceful and non-racist environment.
It primarily focuses on B-Boy, an acrobatic element of hip-hop dancing that allows a dancer to freely express himself through various well coordinated moves.
In the past, BOTY winners have featured in award winning international music videos and movies like Got Served, You How she Move and Stamp in the yard among others.
Zimbabwe becomes the fifth nation in Africa to secure the licence to host BOTY.
Plot MAhako, the director of Jibilika Entertainment, which promotes the development of the hip-hop dance culture in the country, said bringing BOTY would help promote the music genre as well as tourism in Zimbabwe.
"The international initiative which is two decades old is coming to Zimbabwe for the first time under licence from SIX-STEP GmbH, Germany and we also believe that the existence of future prospects to host BOTY Africa will bolster our investor and tourism confidence," said Mhako.
An original receipt shown to Standardplus proved that Mhako had paid a sum of Euro300 to bring BOTY into the country. Jibilika was given the licence agreement to organise the battle of the year elimination of Zimbabwe in 2009.
Individual break-dancers and groups from all the provinces are eligible to register and audition for the finals.
Two preliminaries will be held at Celebration Centrer Church on August 1. A BOTY international representative will jet into the country on August 30 to oversee the process and adjudication.
Five countries Senegal, Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe will then battle for honors at the AFRICA HIP-HOP INDABA to be held from August 26-29 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The five-day Indaba will encompass a series of youth development and exchange workshops. Continental winners will then join groups from Asia, Europe, Africa North and South America at the 20th world championship in Volkswagen Halle, in Germany on October 26.
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