Related Features
IMPRESSIONS: Samita Sinha's "Tremor" at Danspace Project
DANCE NEWS: Danspace Project's Archival Platform Journals & Catalogues Are Now Available as FREE PDFs!
IMPRESSIONS: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born "adaku, part 1: the road opens" at BAM Fisher
By Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
View Profile |
More From This Author
Published on December 8, 2023
"adaku, part 1:the road opens"; Photo: Tony Turner
Conception and writing: Okwui Okpokwasili
Direction: Peter Born and Okwui Okpokwasili
Original songs: Okwui Okpokwasili // Sound score: Peter Born
Movement Development: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born in collaboration with Audrey Hailes, AJ Wilmore, mayfield brooks, McKenzie Frye, Stacy Lynn Smith, and Samita Sinha
Set/lighting/video design: Peter Born // Sound design: Peter Born and Will Johnson
Musical director: Deah Love Harriott // Dramaturgy: Katherine Profeta
Costume co-design and fabrication: James Gibbel
Performers: Okwui Okpokwasili, Audrey Hailes, AJ Wilmore, mayfield brooks, McKenzie Frye, Stacy Lynn Smith, and Samita Sinha
in the thrumming womblike dark
an abstract landscape receives and reflects
shattered yet whole
full of light
full of shadow
a tight-knit cluster of powerful beings
an insistent circling
bare feet pound and slap
to a chant borne on the rhythm of breath
adaku, part 1: the road opens ; Photo: Tony Turner
ribs pop
hips dig
arms whirl
bodies many
spirits one
each one leads in turn
a ritual of protection and empowerment
digging down
breaking out
building
morphing
striving
rising
up from the ground
down from the sky
adaku, part 1: the road opens; Photo: Tony Turner
spines proud
chins strong
skirts lifted
their inhales harmonize
their exhales percuss
a song of the body
a world made flesh
a lifeblood stronger than time
light from within
cupped in cradling palms
held heart to heart
as healing or revelation
a dangerous power
Audrey Hailes and AJ Wilmore in adaku, part 1: the road opens
circling circling circling
voices fill the darkness
the ever-present rhythms of life
shifting
catching
a contagion
a question
a call that demands response
a past that commands a future
the vital seed
hidden to survive savage nightmares
to grow in defiance
potent with purpose
on the righteous road
adaku, part 1: the road opens , Okwui Okpokwasili (foreground); Photo: Tony Turner
the seed of doubt
planted by curiosity
by the pleasure of surrender
by the sharp thrill of fear
her spine arcs on the precipice
heedless of peril
in memories and dreams
Samita Sinha, Okwui Okpokwasili, and mayfield brooks in adaku, part 1: the road opens; Photo: Tony Turner
quiet without
riot within
the unthinkable suddenly so simple
so easy to disappear
yet so hard to contend with the void
the heaviest weightless load
borne together
the air rumbles
the shattered whole unfurls
crinkles in the flashing dark
her heartbeat shines
as the great beyond closes upon her
the road opens
but at what cost
McKenzie Frye, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Samita Sinha in adaku, part 1: the road opens; Photo: Tony Turner
