Unleashing youth potential through performing arts

Meet Khalila Mbowe, a Tanzanian choreographer, creative performance expert and director .The 29-year-old is the founder and managing director of Unleashed Africa Company Limited, an enterprise that trains gifted young people in the performing arts, offering education, mentoring, exposure and opportunities to succeed in life

Despite holding an Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication, of which she obtained from Taylor’s University in Singapore, in 2010, growing up, Khalila had other dreams – to be a professional dancer.

“I knew that I was talented, but I could not dance at home because my family, especially my mother, didn’t want me to dance or listen to the kind of music that appealed to me, except what everybody else was listening to. So I had to do what everybody else was doing, otherwise I’d be the odd one out,” says Khalila.

Often times there’s a pool of youth who grow up knowing they are talented but fail to find the right trajectory to sharpen their skills.

In 2016, Khalila out of sheer determination, laid the ground for a place where youth would be given a chance to hone their talents, thereby being accorded an opportunity to grow professionally in performing arts so that in the end they can be able to contribute to social and economic growth.

“This is a movement offering professional performing arts education, opportunities, exposure, and leadership training to talented African youth resulting to an empowered generation of performing artists, world leaders and responsible global citizens. It is set to positively impact and build Africa socially and economically; also promoting a social mindset shift towards performance arts in Africa,” explains Khalila

“The reason I started this is because being an artist myself I grew up in a situation where my mother never understood why I like to dance, why I like music or writing. The kind of environment we live in does not necessarily empower someone with a talent to immediately pursue that talent,” she says.

She adds that talent in Tanzania (and other similar places) has been branded in a way that it’s associated with entertainment, such as being a dancer. And even then, rarely are such skills taken seriously. “I believe that there is so much value in talents and I don’t think we as a country have reached to a place where we value the diverse talents out there and view them as a resource that can be utilised to grow our economy,” says Khalila.

To start the studio, she had to leave her home and sell her car. “I started living at my friend’s house so that I could be able to fund my dream, my goal was to find talented youth and create different classes where they could develop their talents and there was nothing that gave me joy like seeing those young men and women pursuing their hearts’ desire,”

As of May 2017, the Unleashed Dance Studio had so far served 1,100 clients at the dance studio, that’s dating back to August 2016. Unleashed has created income generating opportunities and impacted the lives of 44 young men and women. It has also hosted free dance training workshops for talented youth and public dance enthusiasts as well as personal development training.

“I fully believe that Africa is one of the most talented continents in the world when it comes to arts, that is a given because despite all the different challenges we have as a continent, talent still shines despite all the trials,” Khalila speaks.

If we want to look at talent as a resource and skill we need to build capacity and groom those who have talent so that they can see that they have something valuable that can be developed.

There are those who grow up thinking that they can’t pursue their dreams. They have raw talent that needs to be discovered and polished. That’s where unleashed academy comes in; to give people, especially youth professional training and give them exposure.

Khalila says that what she and her team are set up to do is to find different ways where they can create programs, services and products that will empower talented youth with professional skills in their art and connect them with different opportunities so that they can generate income. When they earn money they can be able to utilize it for personal development and that of their community.

Future plans

“Ten years to come, my dream is to see unleashed academy become the best performing arts Institution in Africa that is not only breeding professional artists who are good at what they do but also who are agencies of change, visionary leaders and responsible citizens who not only know how to dance but who will be able to live their talents to meet the societal needs

“We want to nurture someone who will want to use his\her talent to inspire other people, if we don’t link the talent that we have with the problems we face then talent is going to be perceived as it is right now – just an entertainment piece.

We have other projects like school performing programs and my wish is to see that we get performing arts as a curriculum in school.