"Re:INCARNATION" by Qudus Onikeku and the QDance Company (Nigeria): U.S Premiere

  • PS21 "Open Air " Pavilion Theater

    2980 New York 66
    Chatham, New York 12037
Ticket Price $10.00-$40.00 This event is now over
Description

$10 Students, Youth, and Educators / $40 General / $35 PS21 Member (no ticketing fee) 

An ode to the richness of Nigerian culture—Re:INCARNATION celebrates the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and Africa’s powers of reinvention in a show that draws on Afrobeats, Afro dances, and Black aesthetics.


Re:INCARNATION launches PS21’s 2022 season of international contemporary dance, opera, theater, and music with performances on opening night June 3 and 4, and a week-long residency dedicated to the community (May 30June 6). 


The QDance Company’s Re:INCARNATION is a 2021 dance, music, fashion, and visual art creation that showcases the depth of ancient Yoruba philosophy, mixed with the current Nigerian youth culture and its pure and uncompromising joy. Ten young dancers and two musicians perform the cycle of life with explosive energy, marked by the urban chaos of the Nigerian mega-city, Lagos. Re:INCARNATION pays homage to the wealth and profusion of Nigerian music, its Afro-beat roots being currently revisited by dancehall, hip-hop, and electro. This musical genre, introduced and popularized by Fela Kuti, was born of an explosive cocktail of jazz, soul, funk, and traditional African music. In this mix of urban cultures, a reincarnation of the personal trajectories of each of the dancers comes to the fore with their references and memories.


All of Lagos is out in the streets, where a fight breaks out and one person dies. A breach in reality opens, exposing a world where a bird-woman holds court, along with keepers of the kingdom of the dead and other mythical figures. Here death is not terminal, it is merely a thread that connects the living to their ancestors. Drawing on Qudus Onikeku's roots of Yoruba cultural traditions, Re:INCARNATION revives body memory and celebrates Africa’s ability to reinvent itself in a collective rebirth. 


A passionate journey of initiation and catharsis. Ten young dancers and two musicians enact this cycle of life with explosive energy. Steeped in local Nigerian Afrobeats as well as dancehall, hip-hop, and funky house, they trace life’s passages with exuberance and elan. Re:INCARNATION  is an epic, an ode to the expressive bounty of Nigeria, to which the performers contribute their individual signatures.

Venue Details

PS21 "Open Air " Pavilion Theater

2980 New York 66
Chatham, New York 12037 PS21 "Open Air " Pavilion Theater
PS/21 Inc

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About PS21

A vibrant center for contemporary performance in the Hudson Valley, PS21 “presents work that challenges and invites” (The New York Times): adventurous productions by leading and emerging American and international artists in music, dance, and theater, and visionaries creating entirely new genres. On our open-air Pavilion Theater stage, across our expansive, unspoiled grounds, and in the diverse surrounding communities, PS21 cultivates and presents productions that transcend aesthetic boundaries and revitalize existing artistic languages and grammars. Throughout the year, we host developmental residencies for dancers, musicians, actors, and creators of original, even unclassifiable new work. Rooted in community collaboration, PS21’s programming engages creatively with critical global and social issues. It is a mecca for innovative and original artistic voices, a destination for performance that can be experienced nowhere else in the region. PS21’s Pavilion Theater is a green-energy marvel surrounded by 100 acres of unspoiled meadows, trails, and woodlands that are a haven to wildlife and visitors across the region.  Integrated into our unspoiled campus, the theater embodies our commitments to the public: open, inviting, and optimized for their enjoyment and encouraging citizen expression and participation.

 

Photography
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