Re:INCARNATION – The QDance Company / Southbank Centre, London

The Southbank Centre join the Dance Consortium network and hosts Re:INCARNATION, a work by The QDance Company bringing the vibrancy and energy of Lagos to the UK’s best dance venues.

Re:INCARNATION

I have been thinking about a talk I went to before a Jazz at Lincoln Centre performance some time ago now. It was about how, in order to keep evolving, contemporary jazz is by necessity challenging, complex, even discordant when first encountered. Maybe it’s that I’m a relative dance neophyte, but this felt fitting as I watched Re:INCARNATION last night.

Re:INCARNATION is a 2021 work by Qudus Onikeku and The QDance Company.  Based in Lagos (since relocating from France in 2014), the company embraces, under Onikeku’s leadership, “an artistic vision that both respects and challenges Yoruba form and contemporary dance”.  This work, which received its UK debut at the Southbank Centre, charts a circle of birth, death, and rebirth.  In the process, to circle ourselves back to my first point, it pushes its dancers to extremes of movement that are sometimes uncomfortable but also expressive and powerful.

It is structured around the Yoruba concepts of Ibi (birth), Iku (death) and Antubi (rebirth). Projections introduce each section: a help as the boundaries of each stage and progression of the overall vision are not otherwise always very clear. Death appears to be the longest stage, bookended on either side by Birth (with Lagos street scenes, courtship, and an onstage birth scene) and Rebirth (with black paint and shadow used to great effect to create visually striking scenes).

From Lagos to London

Re:INCARNATION is also alive with the youthful culture of Lagos’s streets. There are elements of Nigerian and Yoruba culture, language, fashion, dance, and music.  Elements repeat in non-linear cycles, bypassing both time and the boundaries of our world.  Onikeku, who has choreographed the work following extensive research into body memory, collaborates closely with Music Director and Composer Olatunde Obajeun.  Dance and music interweave tightly, each dancer playing their part like a well-rehearsed chamber orchestra.  Musicians Simeon Promise Lawrence and Daniel Ifeanyi Anumudu accompany the performers, one on percussion and one guitar.  Unfortunately the theme of this week’s outings on the Salterton Arts Review is technical difficulties: an unplugged hot plate yesterday, and an unplugged guitar today.  Somewhat distracting from what I suspect I would otherwise have found one of the more powerful moments, but such are the perils of live performance.

I relished Re:INCARNATION as a glimpse into someone else’s world.  It is not always an easy performance to ‘read’, but that – for me at least – is part of the excitement of seeing something new and different. And as a first foray for the Southbank Centre into the fold of Dance Consortium (who aim to tour the best of international contemporary dance through a network of institutions throughout the UK) it’s a fantastic opportunity for the company, audiences, and the wider dance community.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Re:INCARNATION was on at the Southbank Centre on 18 and 19 September only as part of a Dance Consortium tour. More info and tickets for future dates at https://danceconsortium.com/.