The QDance company landed with its joyous showcase Re:INCARNATION to perform for only 2 nights here in Newcastle.
The company was founded and is led by choreographer Qudus Onikeku and is Nigeria’s groundbreaking, Lagos-based company on its first UK tour.
Visitors were met by Afrodance music in the foyer, creating a buzz before Re:INCARNATION even started. At 90 minutes without interval, the time sped by in a whirl of dance, music, costume intersecting with fashion and an easily understood narrative of Birth, Death and Rebirth.
The show opens with the full company of ten in a grounded, rhythmic, unison dance, where the energy is palpable. The prologue sets the scene, there’s a hive of activity and simple text projections are well used, so there’s no doubt which section we’re in. There’s humour, audience connections, brief trios and duets, a fight with hints of police repression and an arrest. The music is outstanding throughout with, unbelievably, only two musicians, Simeon Promise Lawrence and Daniel Ifeanyi Anumundu, seated upstage between a string of hanging costumes.
A child is born and, without touching on life and with a rapid costume change, we’re into the 2nd section, Death. Two white-powdered men dance the only duet of the evening that really involves lifts and contact. This section uses more symbolism, the rest of the company joining in fleeting scenes, different stories with references to pain, anger, grief, slavery. There’s a powerful stick section, including a highly evocatively costumed circle dance. In fact, all the many costumes by Mary Peter Ochei are inventive, quirky and fun.
A powerful finale, Rebirth opens with a poem spoken by a black-painted female dancer. The dancers are focused, some wearing masks. Shifting and moving, mostly as a unified group but with distinct personalities, it ends with a unison dance of exhortation.
It’s a refreshing, non-stop show of vibrant Nigerian dance and talent; the dance is imbued with a mix of tradition and contemporary qualities, such as breakdancing and steps that are new to us.
The musicians are really tremendous, using a range of western and Nigerian instruments creating a groove alongside emotional excitement. The gifted dancers held the stage; I particularly liked the ’bird solo’ performed by a red-wigged dancer and the two ‘ghost’ dancer men who danced the Death duet.
Despite a six-year development period, the choreography felt somewhat underdeveloped, and there’s more exploration to do. What’s important though is how QDance digs into the new and old cultures, making new dance, new stories.
A show to enjoy and a company to watch out for!