A little about myself: I was trained in the theatre by Amkhosi Theatre Productions, which was a community based Karate group that transitioned to a performing arts group. Cont Mhlanga was the founder of this company and he began it in order to engage the township/Ghetto youth of Bulawayo Zimbabwe. I joined the group for Karate training but found myself in the performing programs.

I am very proud to be in the arts professionally today. Most of my inspiration to do karate in the first place was from Cynthia Rockrock’s (the American female martial arts diva)karate movies (No retreat no surrender and Rage and honor), that I watched as a teenager. I was raised in a culture where it wasn’t acceptable for women to do what would be considered traditional men’s roles, but when I watched Cynthia kicking and fighting my life was transformed, I said if another woman can do it, I can too! I carry the same energy Cynthia used in her movies and use it in everything I do on stage today.

---

Loveness Wesa had 14 years’ experience as a dancer, choreographer, actress, singer, and producer in her native Zimbabwe before moving to Portland, Oregon, in December 2002. She was first exposed to the traditional music and dance of her country as a small child watching her mother, aunt, and grandmother, who were Sangomas, the traditional spirit mediums who use song and dance to channel ancestral spirits.

Loveness recorded and released three albums of her original compositions. Tovera (2001) is a collection of music inspired by traditional songs, and Brooms (2002) includes her renditions of songs from her dance play, and in the summer of 2005, Wesa went back to Zimbabwe to record and produce her latest album, Mukadzi WaMambo. These albums include songs in Shona, Ndebele, Venda, Sotho, and English.

In 1989, while still in secondary school, Loveness Wesa joined the Amakhosi Theatre in Bulawayo where she studied music, dance, acting, choreographing, scriptwriting, and stage design with the leading artists of Zimbabwe as well as visiting artists from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, United States, United Kingdom, France, and Jamaica. She performed in many of Amakhosi’s best-known plays, appearing on national television and touring Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique. She has performed for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Edward of the United Kingdom and Presidents Mbeki of South Africa and Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

In 1998 Loveness founded the Kgotso African Dance Theatre as a vehicle for bringing works by women artists to Zimbabwe’s stage. She choreographed Kgotso’s first production, Chakwatu. In 2001 Ms. Wesa became her country’s first woman theatrical producer when she brought her dance drama Brooms to Amakhosi. As well as being the producer, she wrote, choreographed, directed, designed sets and costumes, and danced one of the lead roles. Loveness Wesa has pioneered a style of dance which she calls African Dance Theatre. She merges a variety of traditional dances from throughout the African continent to create a coherent story. Though the dances are African and the lyrics of songs and chants are in their original languages, she tells her stories entirely through the dances and music, making them comprehensible to any audience.

In December 2004, Loveness Wesa made her American debut as a choreographer with her production Langivela Khona (Where I Come From), a dance theatre based on the stories of young African refugees and immigrants living in Portland, Oregon. This community arts project which was sponsored by the Regional Arts and Culture Council and developed out of dance classes she was teaching for African refugees. The production involved 21 performers, both students and professional, from nine different countries and 10 schools in Portland.

In July 2005, Ms. Wesa was invited by the California State University Summer Arts to join Amakhosi founder Cont Mhlanga in teaching workshops on African Theatre. Loveness performed a solo show of her original music and dances at the Cal State Fresno program and taught classes on the use of dancing, singing, and storytelling in African drama.

In addition to performing, she teaches classes in dance, music, and traditional crafts.
Speaking engagements