For Virginie Magumba, a 22-year-old skilled dancer from Goma, in japanese Congo, dancing is greater than only a profession.
“Dancing helps me liberate myself, handle my feelings, and never really feel on their lonesome,” she mentioned. “All that I’ve grow to be I owe to dancing.”
Magumba received the prize for Finest Congolese Dancer at this 12 months’s Goma dance competition, the biggest dancing occasion within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The annual competition, which sees dancers from everywhere in 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 japanese 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 competition constructed me as a dancer,” mentioned Magumba. “It confirmed me I might observe my desires.”
Magumba began dancing comparatively late. She watched dancers observe in her father’s sports activities membership for years, however 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 present 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 hold hoping however it’s exhausting when nothing is bettering. The competition 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 lately. However I constructed my profession right here, in my metropolis, in my neighborhood. There are solely two skilled feminine dancers in Goma. I inform myself, ‘If I depart, who’s going to point out the opposite ladies it’s attainable?’”
