Dancer cries foul over strip tease
…concedes industry was caught flat footed
By Silence Charumbira
Dancer Perseverance Taurai, leader of Girls La Musica has lamented the proliferation of strip tease has diluted the industry thereby sharply reducing their earnings.
Taurai was speaking to Showbiz on the sidelines of her performance at City Sports Bar on Friday evening.
She said erotica had literally taken over their trade with show organisers opting for strippers rather than ordinary dance groups.
“Art has been diluted. There is no art to talk about anymore,” she said.
“As someone who took arts courses at Amakhosi in Bulawayo I am contemplating doing traditional dancing so that maybe I can get a chance to go abroad; maybe Germany.”
The lead dancer who took over the reins from her elder sister Priscilla who left when she got married said she was not ready to get married.
“I have not thought about it. I am not ready but the situation is not good. Even my cousin Glee Bafana aka Gonyeti also got married,” she said.
“What pains me most is that even the strippers themselves are not making money despite taking over the territory. You cannot compare strip tease in Harare to that in South Africa for instance. These girls here are earning peanuts for all their trouble.”
Taurai’s bitterness is similar to that of several others whose earning have been reduced to close to $800 per show to as little as $40.
The economic situation has also contributed to their troubles with hordes of jobless youths also taking to the stage after running out of options.
For Bulawayo boys and girls who made the great trek to the capital in search of the proverbial greener pastures; it seems the pastures are not at all green.
Taurai’s set at City Sports Bar would have been described as pulsating a few years ago; but the competition has become just too rife for anyone’s comfort.
A lot of innovation is now required to make a reveler turn.
“Perverts” no longer drool at just any woman on stage as the exposure of more flesh has become the in thing as adult entertainment trends continue shifting.
True to the assertion, only a handful of revelers were still concentrating on her routines when she left the stage towards midnight and her situation is not in any case unique.
New City Sports Bar manager Mathius Bangure who has extensive experience in arts management and showbiz in general said dancers were on the edge.
“They have to reinvent themselves if they are to survive. In fact the industry as a whole is yearning for something different. Just like sungura music which has largely been stagnant, dance groups have to be innovative if they are to survive. People like change and they deserve it when they spend their money,” Bangure said.
