Re:Incarnation, The QDance Company
The QDance Company, Re:INCARNATION © Tristram Kenton
QDance, the Nigerian dance company founded by choreographer Qudus Onikeku has just kicked off their inaugural UK tour.
Seeped in the dance culture tradition of Lagos and Onikeku’s Yuroba heritage, this was a beast of a work with incredible ambition: to explore the topics of birth, life, death and rebirth in just 90 minutes.
Clothing played a huge part in this piece. In this near set-less work, multi-coloured costumes hung along the back of the stage, before being changed into as the dancers stripped themselves of their yellow fabric-bound torsos. Later, clothing was sacrificed for dust as dancers took on shadowy, demon-like characters to stalk the underworld, before it returned in a party of tule, colourful leggings and weighty rope necklaces.
The entire work was an overwhelming assault on the senses in every aspect. On-stage musicians performed composer Olatunde Obajeun’s fantastic mix of atmospheric music, bass guitar, drumming and afro-beats. This was accompanied by vocal outbursts from the cast and, at one point, a spoken-word monologue performed while being covered in black paint.
The QDance Company, Re:INCARNATION © Tristram Kenton
And then there was the choreography, which was an incredible tour-de-force.
Onikeku’s choreographic language is vast. He flipped from robotic movement, through joyous, springy knees, breaking and intensifying swirling, to slower moments of reflection and back again, while never allowing the work to feel bitty or disjointed. Faith Chukwuemeka Okoh’s tantalising and torturous solo during the exploration of death was particularly noteworthy: at one point his head pulled him back painfully slowly as if wading through tar. These stiller scenes were a stark contrast to the parties they were sandwiched between, but, although given the space they needed to find meaning, could have been tightened up a bit.
There’s no denying, however, Onikeku’s skill in exploring and expressing meaning in the most abstract of subjects.
★★★★
Re:Incarnation by The QDance Company
Southbank Centre, London / 18 September 2024
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