Danceable
By Mr Bright T. Kadengu
We cannot talk of the great journey that Zimbabwe’s arts industry has managed to travel and develop without the mentioning artists with disabilities that have managed to shape the arts industry. These are the likes of; Paul Matavire, Prudence Mabhena and the Liliana, Soul Bone, Greatman Gwaze, Terry Green and Munyaradzi Munodawafa to mention a few. They have managed to defy the odds thrust against them by impairment and society demonstrating to us that with the right supports we all have the potential to achieve greatness despite our various limitations.
Mr Blessing Fire is one of the most talented but unsung artists in Zimbabwe. Christyles, as he is commonly known in the arts circles is a break dancer par-excellence. What separates him from others in his vocation is his dedication and passion towards his work. Despite his physical disability Christyles has held his own in the game. As Thisability Hub we recently got the privilege of chatting with this amazing artist. Below is our conversation with him please read and enjoy;
TH: Who is Blessing Fire?
BF: Blessing Fire aka Christyles, is a professional dancer who started the art of dancing a couple of years ago.
TH: How did you become a professional dancer?
BF: I started doing it professionally around 2010 after being introduced to a couple of competitions with my crew beginning in 2007. We then went on to win different local competitions, we won undisputed the first Jibilika competition that then took us to battle of the year which was then introduced in Zimbabwe in 2009. We also got an opportunity to be part of the Zimbabwe select team that actually went out for the first time to represent Zimbabwe in Cape town South Africa. This is how my career took off. When I came back home, I did some stage productions for Reps Theater and the rest as they say is history.
TH: What inspired you to become a professional dancer?
BF: What really inspired me to become a professional dancer was my desire to excel and succeed. As a young boy, growing up I always wanted to do something and to be someone in life. Being a wheelchair user, seeing a lot of kids at school participating in any sporting activity they so wished motivated me to do something extraordinary with myself. One day I saw my brother doing gymnastics with his friends. This was a turning point in my teenage years. I then thought maybe I could learn one or two things from my brother about gymnastics, so I then learnt the basics which I gradually developed into a professional dance.
TH: What has been your major achievements as a professional dancer?
BF: I have managed to win a couple of competitions locally including Dream Star with my crew, we also performed at HIFA and got the opportunity to be part of Hip Hop Theatre International were we performed in Harare, Jorburg and Cape Town under the British Council. I have also worked with well acclaimed international choreographers from the United Kingdom, France and South Africa.
TH: What obstacles have you encountered as a professional dancer with a disability and how you have managed to navigate through them?
BF: I guess I have encountered a lot of challenges not only because of my disability but also of my career, as you know dancing is not what our culture has fully embraced on a professional level and especially in my case where we were trying to do something that had not been done before. We were like the first group of young people that were trying to make a breakthrough through something that hadn’t been done locally that was not easy.
Let me say the struggle is still there especially if you are trying to get people to understand what you want to do, also to just get the industry and community to really accept it. So it’s tough because a lot of people don’t really have knowledge or an understanding of this type of dancing which is called Break dancing. It is really hard mainly because of our culture barriers, convincing especially our elders that someone can make a living out of it and yes it is a profession that hasn’t been easy for a lot of people to accept.
TH: Besides being a professional dancer what else are you into?
BF: I also do photography, I teach dancing and I also work for a Logistics company in the accounts department.
TH: What professional advice can you give to persons with disabilities who wish to venture into something they are good at?
BF: I think the advice I would like to give to all my people out there is sometimes in life nothing is easy at the beginning you have to push and make it easy, because at the beginning of everything some things don’t make sense.
If you want to do something in life believe in yourself its only you who can also stop yourself, you don’t have to always accept what people say, don’t be limited by your environment. Sometimes you have to fight through you have to go hard and believe. If you don’t believe in yourself, it will be very hard for people to work with you! Yes, I know people will sometimes push you down but the same people will believe in you as long as you believe in yourself.
TH: What should we expect from Blessing Fire aka Christyles in the near coming future?
BF: What to expect from me in the future is just surprises I’m not giving up anytime soon and I’m not thinking of giving up! Watch this space and be ready for surprises!