Bloody Underrated

Nora Chipaumire and Souleymane Badolo are the choreographers of three works comprising this week’s production from Tangente.  Each artist performs a solo, and they finish off the evening with a duet.  Yaado, Voodoo, Love is a part of both the Tangente season, and Ascen/Danses (an event which celebrates artists of the African diaspora).

©2011 Donald Rockhead / Nora Chipaumire et Souleymane Badolo

Yaado is choreographed and performed by Souleymane Badolo.  Badolo has dedicated this solo to the memory of his mother, and by extension as an homage to all women. He wears a simple wrap about his waist, worn usually by women in Burkina Faso, and has a colorful scarf wrapped around his torso, one that is used traditionally to tie small children to women’s backs.

The work starts slowly, as he removes the colorful wrap and creates a sort ceremony with it.  For the majority of the piece he is shirtless, allowing us to see his muscles at work.  He works with varied levels of tension in his body; tensing his back and shoulders and playing lightly with his fingers, then contracting his entire upper body, and continuing into a section of more fluid movement.  These explorations develop into a full body dance that travels around the stage, often within tight pathways created by light.

He works without exterior sound, but rather makes tongue clicks and other sounds with his mouth to score sections of the work, with sparse dialogue included as well.  There are also moments when he plays with the rhythm of his steps.  The piece was without audio, but not without sound.

Voodoo is an excerpt from a larger work by Chipaumire called Miriam, inspired by the life of Miriam Makeba, a South African singer and civil rights activist.  It is a solemn, solo work with a distinctively dark atmosphere that feels restrictive and heavy.

Chipaumire enters the stage obscured by minimal lighting.  She is carrying sandbags hung off of her shoulders and balanced on her head. In the back of the space a mirror hangs from two wires, reflecting a tight stream of light.  There is another mirror to the side, and upstage sits a large bucket filled with water.  The tight set encompasses her space.  She slowly discards the sandbags, and performs in a loose shirt and pants, both dark in colour.

Her movements are slow, smooth and strong.  With her head bent awkwardly far back, and her back arched, she takes small steps with her arms bent behind her like wings.  The image is bird-like or at least decidedly animalistic.  Often she is hunched over to half her size, and with her hands in fists she rotates her wrists and slithers her arms around.  This, alongside her limited space, the water bucket and mirrors suggests a cage as a possible image.

The piece is repetitive and ritualistic. Chipaumire travels in circles around the space and rotates around herself.  She performs identical or similar actions again and again, evolves the proposition and continues.  The ritual becomes longer and more complex.

The soundtrack, playing throughout the dance, is a repetitive fast paced percussion piece, credited to Jimi Hendrix.  As most likely intended, the music became overwhelming in its repetition and sustained energy.  The lighting scheme was evidently very important in both Voodoo and Yaado, hence the inclusion of lighting designer Robert W. Henderson’s biography in the program.

Love is a duet is described as an exploration of the courtship between Badolo and Chipaumire, who are not only collaborators, but also a real life couple.  It was a brief, lighthearted piece to cap off the evening.

The piece starts with the two of them dressed for a night on the town, save for their bare feet; Chipaumire in a short black dress, and Badolo in a button up top and pleated pants.  They stand behind a picture frame and smile sweetly at the audience, adjusting their poses until they have cleared the frame and moved into the space.

The music, an original composition by Obo Addy, sounds like a sexy, mainstream love song.  Matched to the performers’ delightfully coy facial expressions, it creates a mood of comfort and fun for the audience.  The two lovebirds exchange solos, aimed to impress or better the other, peaking in a simple unison section for good measure.

–

Yaado, Voodoo, Love is presented by Tangente and Ascen/Danses.  You can catch the show at Monument National from February 23rd – 25th at 8:30pm and the 26th at 4pm.  The show totals 70min with no intermission.  As per usual, tickets are $20 regular, with some discounts available.

-Allison