Nkululeko Innocent Dube

Writer, Director, Choreographer

Nkululeko Innocent Dube is the brains behind Inkululeko Yabatsha School of Arts (IYASA) who quit the teaching profession to venture into arts full-time. A teacher by profession, Nkululeko started the group as a dance/drama initiative at Mpopoma High School in Bulawayo and turned it into a professional platform for young people involved in the arts.

Dube founded Iyasa to support and promote the best interests of young musicians, dancers, actors and poets. Iyasa pioneered the sub-genre where dance is accompanied by contemporary music through a sound system. The group has since developed to become a resource centre for most established and upcoming artists, especially actors, poets, musicians, singers and dancers.

He also established Isiphiwo Sami talent search as a vehicle for training scholars and teachers in secondary schools in theatre and other art genres.

Dube has led IYASA to several local and international awards including three National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) in the Best Dance Group category, the NAMA Video of The Year award, NAMA People’s Choice Dance Group award and the Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA) Best Dance Group category.

In 2016 he scooped an award for Best Music in the production “Mein Bauenhof” (My Farm House) at the Austrian Stells awards with IYASA. The musical portrayed the differences and similarities of children growing up in a farmhouse in Europe and Africa.

While Iyasa has become popular in Zimbabwe for Dance, it also delves into theatre where Dube’s theatre productions make use of various art forms such as dance and music, which add more flavour to his work, making it stand out even more.

He has also pioneered in collaborative productions including the production ‘Black & White Ain’t No Colours’, a collaboration between a German theatre group and Iyasa. He has utilised such collaborations to broaden cultural freedom digging deeper into various aspects of people’s cultures and building bridges among people from different nationalities and belief systems.

With Iyasa Nkululeko has nurtured various talented artists including Sandra Ndebele, Nomathamsanqa “Nkwali” Mkhwananzi, Roben Mlauzi and Futurelove Sibanda.

Dube is a true living legend as he introduced the concept of accompanying dance with contemporary music and nostalgic urban costumes while Iyasa has become an incubation hub, where he has developed and nurtured Artists who have become household names outside the confines of the group.— NACZ.