Re:Incarnation
Abbey Theatre, Dublin
★★★☆☆
In Re:Incarnation the choreographer Qudus Onikeku not only brings the vibrant and colourful energy of Lagos to the stage but also draws on a deeper connection to the past and the Yoruba belief in Ìbí (Birth), Ikú (Death) and Àtúnbí (Rebirth).
Here the soul is in an eternal cycle of living, dead and unborn awaiting reincarnation, unlike the more linear concept of the eternal afterlife following death.
The 10 dancers of the QDance Company portray this endless succession by reconnecting to myths and presenting identifiable images, such as death as an old man with a stick who clubs his victims, or reciting some of the many proverbs and aphorisms in Yoruba philosophy.
What speaks loudest is the immediate physicality onstage, a mishmash of styles that both signify the collective through unison sequences and establish individual identity through solos. All the time, the musicians Fabiyi Abiodun Samuel and Simeon Lawrence provide a chaotic soundtrack evoking bustling Lagos, through live and recorded music and historical speech.
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Less impactful are long sections, particularly in the middle section, Death, when the physical dynamism gives way to gestural literalness.
Overall, Re:Incarnation asks how we embody the past. If it is accepted that everybody carries their life experiences in their body, then can we embody the experiences of our ancestors? In posing these questions the work refuses to be subjugated by the past and weighed down by tradition. Rather it celebrates the diverse experience of our ancestors through the youthful and joyous physicality of the present generation.
Re:Incarnation is at the Abbey Theatre, as part of Dublin Dance Festival, until Wednesday, May 21st
