Harare dance groups taking over Bulawayo?
By Bongani Ndlovu
Bev and the Sexy Angels and Zoey and her Red Angels have taken Bulawayo by storm in recent months, pushing city-based dance groups off the stage. Bev and the Sexy Angels are proving to be in great demand.
Her raunchy dance crew has performed in the city five times in about two months, with the most recent being last week. Zoey and her troupe last week featured in the Hustlers Night Club 12th anniversary celebrations.
Bulawayo has its own fair share of raunchy all-female dance groups like Girls La Musica and Exotic Rhumba Dancers. They also have a sexually-provocative set but the question is, why is there so much demand for Bev and Zoey when Bulawayo has its own?
Have local dance groups lost their market to the Harare girls or has the market become tired of them? Some people say Bulawayo groups such as Exotic Rhumba dancers and Girls La Musica have been on the scene for so long and people are longing for fresh blood.
General manager of newly-opened Club Forty 40, Andrew Nzombe who hosted Zoey last week said: “Bringing Bev here was like a marketing tool so that people know the night spot and they can come to the club on a different day when there is no outside act.
“On a normal day we shall have dance groups such as Girls La Musica who will hold fort during Ladies Night,” said Nzombe whose club last week hosted Bev and the Sexy Angels. He said initially they had Exotic Rhumba Dancers but after consultations they changed to working with Girls La Musica.
“It’s not that local groups are not good. It is about bringing variety to the club and on Saturday we shall have Zoey and the Red Angels at the club. This is a marketing gimmick so that we put our club on the entertainment map in Bulawayo, since it’s new. We stopped working with Exotic because we they were tired and we went for Girls La Musica. The groups from Bulawayo are good, it’s just that we want to have variety,” said Nzombe.
Local promoter, Omega “Oms” Sibanda and administrator of The Basement Night Club that has hosted Bev four times in a short period of time, said they had been promoting basically all Bulawayo-based groups. He said the reason he brings Bev or any other act was to add spice to their weekend programmes.
“We should not compare why we bring these groups from Harare at the expense of our own. Since the days of Club Alabama we have been promoting musicians and acts from, Bulawayo. The reason we have these groups come in from Harare is that we want to spice up the entertainment in our night club,” said Sibanda.
He said his club was a trend-setter in the city, which is why Bev’s debut show in Bulawayo was at The Basement. “We are the ones who brought Bev into the Bulawayo club scene and that is a fact and people want her because of us.
“During the days of Club Alabama we were the first to bring to Bulawayo the likes of Bob Nyabinde, Sam Mtukudzi, Decibel, Steve Makoni, Roki, Betty Makaya to mention but a few. So it makes business sense for us to bring these people to the club just to attract more people to the night spot,” said Sibanda.
He said because these groups were from out of town revellers were more interested in them. Resident DJ at Hustlers night club DJ Mzoe, who are celebrating 12-years in business said Bulawayo dance groups were good and they always work with them.
“The Bulawayo groups are very good. It is not that we have shunned Bulawayo dance groups but these other groups such as Zoey, are just invited to headline our shows as guests. We have New Age, Simunye Simunye, Dynamite Chicks and Afro Queens who perform during the week,” said DJ Mzoe.
He said Bulawayo has churned out groups that have relocated to the Harare in search of greener pastures. The Chronicle
