As the title suggests, Qudus Onikeiku’s Re:INCARNATION concerns, well, the circle of life moving from birth through death to rebirth.
The atmosphere is inspired by Yoruba culture, which involves communities living in agricultural compounds, practising a religion which features a vast pantheon of deities. The dance, therefore, moves away from urban towards a more natural, rural, setting. Death, we are advised, is the shedding of modernity rather than the end of physical life.
The impression of life is, however, rarely idealised. An opening prologue presents a grim picture of modern urban society. The ten members of The QDance Company stand in tight formation, their limbs moving in brisk, short movements as they treat themselves and each other as machines. The mechanical theme extends even to sex, which is compulsive, something to be got out of the way, rather than a joyful act. It does, however, lead to the inevitable first act: "Birth".
The first act shows a radically different style of dance. The rigid, mechanised approach of the prologue is replaced by a raucous, chaotic style. There is a township vibe, bawled voices and catcalls and wide, expansive gestures. The dancing relaxes, becoming looser and more dramatic, even acrobatic. There is, however, no lessening of the bleak view of life—the sequence concludes with a dancer, mugged and stripped of his clothes, getting an unsympathetic response from the villagers.
The vibe becomes increasingly tribal and reflective of the aging process as the dancers move towards the theme of "Death". A pair of dancers made frail with age, and supported by walking sticks, perform increasingly twisted and agonised steps as they endure the effects of age. The dance moves towards a transformative theme with the suggestion one of the aging dancers may have been sacrificed to restore the youth of the other.
Re:INCARNATION moves further away from modern urban life as the stage is invaded by animals or animalistic spirits. Hands become claws and wings and the dancers stalk the stage on all fours menacing humans in the vicinity. The sequence also marks a shift towards a more abstract approach.
Olatunde Obajeun’s score, a combination of prerecorded work and onstage guitar and percussion work from Simeon Promise Lawrence and Daniel Ifeanyi Anumudu, is startlingly varied including even elements of jazz. A lengthy instrumental section leads into the closing sequence—"Rebirth"—when the theme becomes harder to determine and the mood more obscure.
The troupe recite and chant a series of somewhat trite aphorisms—“To catch a fish, you need a bit of luck and a good bait”—while painting their skin with an oily, black substance. With charcoal-coloured skin, they blend into the twilight backing allowed by the minimal lighting. Skin colour is not the only way in which Re:INCARNATION returns to the homogeneity of the prologue—the movement of the dancers also becomes less individualistic, possibly to suggest even a rural community will ultimately be drawn towards conformity.
It is, however, a bit of an anticlimax for such a colourful, vibrant show to conclude with a sequence where the theme is hard to determine and the choreography the least adventurous. Oh well, that’s life.