Some contemporary dance groups are fuming over the National Arts Merit Awards decision to throw out their nomination papers in favour of the classic and traditional dancers.

According to the selection process, artistes were required to fill in forms that would be assessed by the adjudicators before choosing the nominees.

National Arts Council boss Elvas Mari further ruffled feathers when he suggested the dancers in question did not meet the stipulated standards when announcing the nominees last week.

Apama Styles director David Machowa said he was surprised by the omission of contemporary dancing groups that have been performing to full houses at various leisure spots.

"I was surprised to realise that groups like Amagesh, Red Angels and Amanandos and even Apama were not considered for the dancing group category in the Nama awards.

"We also inquired about he forms but got no response from the responsible board, which shows that our contribution and hard work to the Zimbabwean arts sector is not appreciated," said Machowa.

All-female contemporary group Mambokadzi was the last group to be nominated or to have its members nominated for the dance category award when Iris Mangove and Viola Sibanda got the nod in 2009.

This year, a Victoria Falls traditional dance ensemble, Ubuntu Bomuntu, was nominated for the Outstanding Dance Group together with Umkhathi Theatre Works and the regular feature in the category, National Ballet of Zimbabwe.

National Ballet of Zimbabwe, who have been dominating the awards in the dancing category, also has dancers Mitchell Natville and Macintosh Jerahuni respectively nominated for the outstanding dancers in the female and male disciplines.

The group leader of Amagesh, Tinashe Ngwenya, said his group was not conversant with the application procedures and challenged the National Arts Council to improve communication lines with artistes about the process.

"We are not sure of how the National Arts Council came up with the nominees as we were informed late about the availability of forms hence our application was late.

"I think the National Arts Council should find ways of informing the artistes well before the deadline," said Ngwenya.The artistes will converge on the Rainbow 7 Arts Theatre for the awards set to be held this weekend.