Last night, as I was driving home with my children asleep in the back of the car and my wife sitting next to me, I had countless, shapeless visions that defied my eyes and imaginations. These images were not the consequence of consuming hallucinatory drugs or chemical substances, but merely the effect of attending ADAD’s first ever Open Stage. Simone Foster’s expressive arms, Lola Adodo’s proud and peaceful dual personalities, Christina Oshunniyi’s piercing cries, Catherine’Wheeler’s experimental approach and Christina Connors and Richard Boon’s humorous routine kept popping up in front of my eyes like a kaleidoscopic apparition; all parts of the same piece, yet shifting shapes constantly.
In vain could one attempt to pigeonhole the pieces on stage last night. And yet they all draw from the rich history and mysticism of African culture. The first piece could have well confounded the spectator. With music by Asian British musician Nitin Sawhney and references to the novel ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini, attendees could have been forgiven for asking themselves where the African element was. Yet, Simone’s movements drew from a myriad African dance and African-derived forms, including Afro-Cuban and Soul-Jazz and the result was pure poetry in motion where the plight of the two women from the novel the piece referenced was evident. This was followed by a divertissement by Lola Adodo where her two fictional characters Tatula and Kumala interacted to great effect and gave food for thought to the audience as to the variety of dance styles in existence in the African continent. Christina Oshunniyi closed the first part of the show with a powerful and heart-rending performance that left most of the auditorium reaching for their hankies. I can still her crying out: ‘Mummy, no, Mummy, please’. And if your heart did not stop at that moment and your lachrymal glands remained dry, then your name might as well be R2D2 and you will have to have that loose wire checked. The second segment of the night kicked off with Catherine Wheeler’s experimental piece on the journey of Africans to the Americas, focusing mainly upon two countries that were heavily influenced by their presence: Brazil and Cuba. Christina Connors and Richard Boon brought the night to an end with their bravura performance full of choreographic razzmatazz. The piece was slick and at times cheeky allowing the public to be bowled over by the pair’s ingenious use of space and movement.
My conclusions after watching the five pieces were that:
1) All performers, including choreographers, deserved the applause that was given after each performance for they all showed a great capacity for combining various aspects of dances that sometimes lacked historical links, let alone chronological connection. Nobody danced anyone else off stage last night and to think that way would be unfair to the dancers whose performances demonstrated the validity of African dance in the 21st century.
2) Events like this show the cultural wealth that Africa has to offer and has indeed offered for many centuries. They tear through the rational that all African and African-derived dances are always up-tempo and jumpy-jumpy.
3) Dance as any other art form is nothing but a gigantic jigsaw puzzle whose pieces keep shifting and drifting. The minute we have slotted one into place and slapped ourselves on the back for doing so, we will see the next one along moving away or changing shape, thus confounding us and leaving us to wonder why and how they did that. Unbeknownst to us the one we have just slotted in the correct space will have changed shape, too and will become yet another vagrant piece in the surreal jigsaw puzzle. Unlike exact sciences, art cannot be pre-calculated or pre-determined and if it ever is, the result is usually formulaic and disposable rubbish. Last night, fortunately, that was not the case, all performers and choreographers took risks and we, the audience, were the richer for that.
My thanks to Jeannette Bain, Zela Gayle, Paula Allen and all the others who contributed to what was a marvellous and successful night for Dance of the African Diaspora. And I for one cannot wait until the next session.
No comments:
Post a Comment