For Virginie Magumba, a 22-year-old skilled dancer from Goma, in jap Congo, dancing is greater than only a profession.
“Dancing helps me liberate myself, handle my feelings, and never really feel on their own,” she stated. “All that I’ve grow to be I owe to dancing.”
Magumba gained the prize for Finest Congolese Dancer at this 12 months’s Goma dance pageant, the biggest dancing occasion within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The annual pageant, which sees dancers from all around the world flock to Goma, has been held within the metropolis for the previous seven years regardless of persevering with assaults by insurgent teams in jap DRC. The area has lengthy been overrun by greater than 120 armed teams searching for a share of its gold and different sources as they perform mass killings.
“This pageant constructed me as a dancer,” stated Magumba. “It confirmed me I might comply with my goals.”
Magumba began dancing comparatively late. She watched dancers follow in her father’s sports activities membership for years, nevertheless it was not till she was 17, newly graduated from highschool and about to start out a level in humanitarian research, when she determined to provide it a go.
Over time, dancing grew to become a type of remedy for her. It made her neglect household troubles and the violence within the area — and allowed her to maintain hope.
“We attempt to preserve hoping nevertheless it’s exhausting when nothing is bettering. The pageant embodies this spirit of perseverance.”
Though her profession as a dancer provides her the uncommon alternative to journey exterior the nation, she says she just isn’t planning on leaving DRC.
“So many individuals left in recent times. However I constructed my profession right here, in my metropolis, in my group. There are solely two skilled feminine dancers in Goma. I inform myself, ‘If I go away, who’s going to indicate the opposite ladies it’s potential?’”
DRC’s largest dance pageant embodies the spirit of perseverance
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