They first came to Rwanda in the year 2000; that time for a performance at the then National University of Rwanda, Butare. 

Then, they were just a group of students from Manchester High School in Kampala, Uganda who were enthusiastic about dance.

Today, they are adults who have stuck to their first shared passion – dancing for and entertaining the audience.

They go by the name, X-Link Entertainment, the premier dance/karaoke/entertainment outfit in Kigali.

From that first gig in 2000, the dancers have gone on to mesmerize crowds at different venues around the country, including several hotels, private events, big music concerts, coupled with promotions and road shows for telecom companies like MTN and Tigo.

For the last two months, the crew has been staging performances at The Manor Hotel in Nyarutarama, where they perform from Tuesdays through to Sunday, taking a break only on Mondays.

In the course of these two months I have caught 3-4 of their performances, and each occasion, one thing always stood out: the crew’s mastery of the Indie, and African (Lingala) dances.

"One of my managers, Shadia knew them, so she invited them and they came and put up a show for me, and I signed them up immediately,” said Saeed Alam, owner of The Manor Hotel.

"We had already been thinking of something like that, these guys just brought the plans forward and we had to quickly build a stage and get the place ready. They brought something quite unique, something that is not here in Kigali. Normally, it is bands you find playing in hotel lobbies, but we needed something that’s different from the mainstream. These guys come with many things rolled in one, like dancing, comedy, acrobatics, salsa, and aerobics.”

One of the members, Fatuma Gulam, aka Cataleya is so adept at the Indian belly dance that patrons are always forced to speculate on her race.

The crew’s core members are actually three siblings; Mohammed Bashir Sheikh, and his two sisters; Sophina Akhter Sheikh, and Gulam Fatuma Sheikh. The others are; Hanifa Nassazi, Becky Najjuko, and Emma.

The three siblings are actually half-Pakistani, something that is always a source of speculation among their audience. While some think they are Indian, others think they hail from the Caribbeans.

Blood ties aside, the entire crew lives together like one family, just like it has always been from the beginning.

Started as a joke

The crew that today boasts a presence in Rwanda, Uganda and Juba, in Southern Sudan started as a high school fantasy –way back in the late ‘90s.

Mohammed Bashir, the crew’s manager and one of the pioneers recollects: "We started in high school (Manchester High, in Kampala, Uganda). We were seven – four girls and three boys. We all enjoyed music, dance, and Indian movies.”

One day the school held a party for students, and one of the members suggested an Indian dance performance for fellow students since all shared a passion for Indian music and movies. The show was so well received; it surpassed their own expectations, with many students begging to join.

"We held many shows at school, until one day a parent invited us to perform at his son’s birthday,” Bashir further states, adding that it was the first time they were being paid some money for a performance. If anything, that was the perfect hint for the then aspiring entertainers – that there was money to be made out of their shared passion – dance. And they have never looked back since.

"When people started paying us, we decided to go professional, and started buying video tapes and DVDs with different dance performances. We would learn from them but also improvise our own steps. We would evaluate all our performances so that we could get better. We would go out there, see, and from what we have seen, perfect our own moves.”

The three siblings were further lucky to hail from a music-loving family: "We really started it as kids. Our mother, who is a retired military officer, used to play music on her old gramophone to which I and my siblings danced for our parents. At that time I thought that dancing was just a kid’s thing.”

Luckily for them, although from a staunch Muslim family, their father used to allow the siblings to watch music shows on TV.

"With time we started developing an urge to imitate what we saw on screen,” explains Bashir, adding that "our whole family loved dancing. I think it’s part of the DNA, because even dad and mum hooked up on the dance floor while dancing at a party.”

Here in Rwanda, word about the crew from Uganda spread like a bush fire after that first performance in Butare. Bashir narrates: "When we came back to town after the performance, we met a gentleman called Gerard, the owner of Sky Hotel in Gitega, who had seen us on stage and wanted us to perform at his hotel.” 

After several such performances, the group garnered enough visibility to attract the likes of telecom giants MTN and Tigo, for which they did countrywide road shows.

"At that time we were still very few, since most members were still in school, so we started recruiting and training new members to keep up with the demand,” Bashir adds. "Since 2000, we kept coming to Rwanda every year, missing only twice.”

On dancing

"Dancing just takes me over, and it’s even worse when the audience is cheering you, because that is like pushing you to do even better,” Bashir explains. "I don’t know what happens to me when I go on stage. I think I become a totally different person, like someone who is possessed. Sometimes while performing I suffer an injury, but when I see my colleagues on stage, I force myself to go back.

"A good dancer,” adds Bashir, "is one who dances because he or she loves to dance. Dancing is a good thing, because it keeps the body in shape. Everyone can be a dancer in their own right; it’s only the levels that vary.”

Fatuma Gulam, the group’s belly dance specialist had this to say: "Dancing is something that’s in me. Whenever I’m moving to a beat, whatever beat, it just makes me happy, and usually I never notice that people are watching me. Dancing keeps me in shape, so there is no need for gym. Actually I’ve never stepped foot in a gym.”

Better known by her nick name, Cataleya, Fatuma was the youngest when the crew was formed, earning herself the name, Baby X-Link.

She loves African dances the most, and about which she says: "They may seem complicated at first, but yet nice and attractive because I’m also African, so the dance just brings out who I am. Dancing is my passion because I can dance, and it’s not bragging. I love music, and it had always been a part of me since childhood. People who know me also know that dancing is my first passion.”

She contends that there are many different kinds of dances, "so our work as a crew is to make people understand and enjoy other cultures through music. We try to do something for everyone.

About Indian dances, her other love she says: "I think we were the first group in Uganda and Rwanda to do Indie dances and performances. Indian dance is not just about dancing, but expression. It combines choreography with acting.”

For her part, Sophina Akhter Sheikh had this to say: "X-Link Entertainment was my idea in the beginning, but my brother Bashir has been managing this crew since day one, and I credit him for bringing X-Link to the level it is today.” She contends that what set their crew apart from other similar outfits is the Indie performances.

Though she loved dancing from childhood, "dancing on stage came as an accident to me. I initiated my siblings into dance, and since childhood I have always loved the Zouk and Lingala dances.” She adds that dancing is a continuous learning process, and that she learnt the Arabic Taarab dance from Tanzania.