It is the great cycle of life in all its fury, beauty and mysticism that Nigerian choreographer Qudus Onikeku and his fabulous performers brilliantly evoke in Re: Incarnation. A manifesto piece that is both exhilarating and bewitching, moving and explosive, perfect to open this 16and edition of the FTA after two years of pandemic scarcity.
Posted yesterday at 3:26 p.m.
The atmosphere was feverish on this opening night of the Festival TransAmériques, when the two new artistic directors of the festival, Jessie Mill and Martine Dennewald, were welcomed with loud applause and great enthusiasm. The latter are already asserting their colors with this first program, and this opening show which, for the first time in the history of the festival, has been entrusted to a company from the African continent.
A galvanizing electricity, no doubt attributable to the return of this precious communion between the stage and the public (without a mask!), already ran through the room even before the performers of Re: Incarnation set foot there. The table was set for an evening that was already shaping up to be unforgettable.
And this creation by Nigerian choreographer Qudus Onikeku did not disappoint. The latter worked for many years in Europe before taking the decision to return to create on African soil. A desire to exist beyond Western standards that is felt from the first seconds of the piece, as the ten performers throw it all in their colorful and eclectic clothes, taking the stage by storm with their explosive and bold energy.
Re: Incarnation is a true manifesto, that of a dance of bodies freed from any form of intellectualization.
The bare stage is occupied, at the rear ends, by two nimble musicians, who will handle instruments such as guitar, drums or trumpet, as well as an electronic console, in order to create a sound atmosphere that will modulate over the different scenes. . Clothes arranged at the back of the stage will be used by the performers to moult from one skin to another, like snakes, passing through the different stages of existence.
PHOTO HERVE VERONESE, PROVIDED BY THE FTA
Re: Incarnation exudes crazy, electrifying energy.
Life, death and everything else
Welcome to Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, often associated with the legendary Fela Kuti, father of Afrobeat, but also a fertile nest of Afrodancehall and Afropop. It’s a party night; the bodies explode, move, dance to the rhythm of lively music. The movements are energetic, jerky, robotic, mimic everyday acts; the very expressive faces change constantly; mischievous, mischievous, cheeky, laughing. We are contaminated by their communicative energy. Impossible not to smile, nod and tap your feet while attending this uninhibited and enjoyable parade.
The act of seduction ends in great fornication. A woman gives birth, a baby is born. This is the beginning, the beginning. “Birth: We are here, because we have always been here,” reads a backstage projection.
The dance starts again, frenzied, electric, free of any constraint. The rhythm seizes the body, each performer goes with his “presentation”: hip-hop, capoeira, breakdance, voguing, funky house, dancehall, Latin… All styles mingle in a joyful ecstatic mess, and each dancer brings his personality, his aptitudes, his way of moving.
Life is followed by death. A man, in convulsion, dies. Change of table; the real is fragmented, we are somewhere in a suspended space, in the realm of the dead. Men coated in white powder begin a macabre dance. Mythical figures in flamboyant clothes take on half-human, half-animal forms. With their sticks, they strike the ground, conjuring up an ancestral, hypnotic rhythm that seems to find its echo in the very origins of the world.
It’s time for the final tableau: “Atunbi” – which means rebirth in Yoruba, one of Nigeria’s national languages. Purification by fire. ” Get black to get back reveals another projection. The dancers coat their black skin, now ebony. As a group, they throw themselves headlong, ecstatic, stunning in their abandon. It’s trance, catharsis. The cycle can now begin again, the soul is liberated.
A great show that knows how to make resonate, beyond our differences, and even thanks to them, this thin thread that unites us all, where the human finds its place – and its meaning – in this great cycle of life. An electric shock that ejects us from the pandemic torpor, from which we emerge invigorated with the impression, we too, of reviving. And that is precious. Thank you, Mr. Onikeku.
Re: Incarnation
Jean Duceppe TheaterUntil May 28