Qudus Onikeku
QDance Company
The Lowry, Salford
October 8-9, 2024: 1 hr 25 mins
(Also at Hull New Theatre, October 11-12; Newcastle Theatre Royal, October 15-16, and Edinburgh Festival Theatre, October 18-19)
Loud, proud, colourful and exuberant, Re:INCARNATION is not so much a dance work as a showpiece for the spirit of Lagos, Nigeria. There’s dancing in it, of course, and it has been brought to the UK by Dance Consortium, but in some ways it’s a kind of tableau of life in an African city and the spirit that enlivens it.
There’s an underlying theme – Birth, Death and Rebirth, hence the title – which is flagged on projections at the back of the performing area, but the performance (85 unbroken minutes) has the feel of being at least partly derived from improvisation, and the story it tells seems to be more one of the experience of young Nigerians in the present day rather than anything else.
At the start they burst on our senses with colourful costumes, celebratory movement and plenty of shouting as they do it. Then there’s a change, as they retreat to the shadows and change what they’re wearing for the next sequence. The music tracks (increasingly enlivened by live playing and drumming from two musicians) are the kind of insistently repeated rhythmic and melodic cells beloved of African sound-makers; and there’s a very literal, comic scene to illustrate “Birth”.
After that it gets more complicated. “Death” isn't far behind, and the projection tells us it is necessary to reject “Modernity” to find answers. As might be expected in the context of such a long, continuous presentation, the furious pace of the opening cannot be sustained, and there are long passages of movement that slows and at times stops altogether, which is fair enough if Death is what you have in mind.
The musicians have a significant solo spot with no dancing attached, and meanwhile the company is getting itself smeared with black, oily stuff in preparation for the final section, where there’s a reading of Sayings of the Wise and the projection tells us it’s a case of “Go Black to get back”. Is it a statement of faith in tradition? Or is the new blackness reminiscent of the oil that is Nigeria’s squandered natural asset?
At the end the dancing is as frenetic as at the start, but more so: a wheel has turned full circle. The show was received with rapturous enthusiasm – and gives a glimpse of another world (to many), of Africa’s irrepressible life.
More info and tickets here
