Milton Keynes Theatre will open its stage up to Re:INCARNATION
Posted 1st August 2024
This September, Milton Keynes Theatre will open its stage up to Re:INCARNATION which will bring all of the spirit of Lagos here to the new city.
Forecast to become the world’s biggest city by the turn of the century, Lagos is massive, youthful and exciting – and the Nigerian megalopolis is also where the show’s choreographer Qudus Onikeku was born.
“Lagos is very much captured in the show,” he promises, “The energy of Lagos, the vibrancy, the youthfulness, the craziness, the madness, the beauty, the ugliness – are what I was really inspired by…and it is showcasing the young energy encapsulated in the city with a lot of joy and a lot of colour.”
Re:INCARNATION’s UK premiere was hosted at London’s Southbank Centre, brought to life by 10 dancers and two musicians collectively delivering a live soundtrack featuring West African music genre Afrobeats and dynamic dancing – contemporary, salsa, hip hop and street styles, wacking and krump. Vivid masks and costumes and colour-soaked lighting wrap the package gloriously.
Qudus used the work to explore how young people fuse life today with influences from the past, connecting that spirit of youth with the ancient philosophy of the Yoruba people, who have lived in Nigeria for centuries.
“The notion of dying and rebirth, and dying and rebirth again, in a continuous circle of reincarnation, is more or less what I wanted to capture in the show,” Qudus explained, “The young dancers, despite their seeming disconnection with ancient philosophies, are in fact reproducing the codes and forms of the past without being conscious of it.
“The Yoruba don’t believe in life after death, they believe in different cycles of life, different types of incarnations. An experience doesn’t need to be in one lifetime, it could be in cycles of lifetimes. We try to remember that when we do a performance.”
Qudus trained in France but returned to Lagos a decade ago, establishing the social enterprise The QDance Center and building a reputation for new and exciting work.
“One amazing thing about this show is that whether we are in Europe or America or Africa, people connect to it in a very interesting way,” he said, “Maybe that’s because it was created after Covid and Black Lives Matter and there was a certain kind of openness and an awareness of alternative philosophies or ideologies.
“Also, Instagram and TikTok have done a good job in popularising dance and music forms coming from West Africa so it feels like we are adding into a tradition that is already ahead of us.”
Qudus is thrilled to be returning to the UK, a place he first came to as a solo performer in 2012, and he is suitably buoyed about sharing the work with audiences in Milton Keynes.
“It’s a show that is quite multifaceted but one thing that I know people have always got out of it is this vibrancy, this young energy that we are bringing. It’s a shared moment of beauty and vivacity and I hope that we can add joy to our world.”
But while delivering the show is causing excitement, it’s not the only thing he’s looking forward to…
“I love the shopping, I love going to the pound stores – I always find something interesting there!”
QDance Company’s Re:INCARNATION visits Milton Keynes Theatre
on Saturday, September 21.
To book tickets visit atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes