Oliver & Cuyjet
Bringing Cynthia Oliver and Souleymane Badolo together on a shared bill at NYLA (April 25 – 27) was genius. Oliver’s BOOM! opened with a boom…well, it was more like a bang as the lights lowered and the door to enter the theatre slammed and there were voices. It was Oliver and Leslie Cuyjet mumbling and fussing as they made their way down the stairs to the stage. Once on stage, there was a lot to share. The seasoned performers (serious kudos to them looking so good) traversed the stage with a mix of gesture-driven poses, flying legs, running the circumference of the stage, stopping to embrace (some really good spooning), supple and gracious posturing showing off their bodies (“BAM” they would say pointing to a hip), or crawling on all fours towards the audience, settling on their knees to offer up some thoughtful texts – “I’ma punish you…I’ma give you hope!” BOOM! is an excerpt from a larger work in progress.
Badolo presented two completely different works, BARAK and Buudou, BADOO, BADOLO. In BARAK, Badolo described by the New York Times as possessing a “voluptuous, muscular stage presence,” donning a bright-red, skin-tight pants and an unzipped
yellow hoddie, walk to center, placed his feet in a ballet position, arms wide open, bows at least four times, then simply walks backwards. This kind of humble posturing continues in silence for a while. When music does come in (Edith Piaf), Badolo doesn’t ignore it, but it’s as if his movement dictates what happens next. After moments of interacting with the audience (hip swinging, hand shaking, clapping, prompting the audience to join him and a quick smile), he moves far up stage center and disappears into a series of solemn inwards movement-gestures, shifts to sharp balances and off balances to then take a quick exit. In sharp contrast, Badolo replaces the tight red pants and bright yellow hoodie with white pants and shirt in Buudou,
BADOO, BADOLO. The audience is taken on a voyeuristic view of a ritual ceremony in progress. Guided by three points in a diagonal on the stage (an alter with powder, blood, food for the Gods and water that he spits in the air, a square with rice which he runs his fingers through, and the last with cowrie shells manipulated in a reading). Drummer, Mamadou Konate joins Badolo in a non-English conversation as he sifts through the cowrie shells. Sometimes fast, but most times deliberately slow, Badolo addresses each point moving close to the floor or high of the ground in complete concentration. To finish, drummer and dancer meet downstage left, exchange rhythms when finally Badolo places his head in a bowl of white clay, lifts his head and the clay streams down his face.
Badolo presented two completely different works, BARAK and Buudou, BADOO, BADOLO. In BARAK, Badolo described by the New York Times as possessing a “voluptuous, muscular stage presence,” donning a bright-red, skin-tight pants and an unzipped
yellow hoddie, walk to center, placed his feet in a ballet position, arms wide open, bows at least four times, then simply walks backwards. This kind of humble posturing continues in silence for a while. When music does come in (Edith Piaf), Badolo doesn’t ignore it, but it’s as if his movement dictates what happens next. After moments of interacting with the audience (hip swinging, hand shaking, clapping, prompting the audience to join him and a quick smile), he moves far up stage center and disappears into a series of solemn inwards movement-gestures, shifts to sharp balances and off balances to then take a quick exit. In sharp contrast, Badolo replaces the tight red pants and bright yellow hoodie with white pants and shirt in Buudou,
BADOO, BADOLO. The audience is taken on a voyeuristic view of a ritual ceremony in progress. Guided by three points in a diagonal on the stage (an alter with powder, blood, food for the Gods and water that he spits in the air, a square with rice which he runs his fingers through, and the last with cowrie shells manipulated in a reading). Drummer, Mamadou Konate joins Badolo in a non-English conversation as he sifts through the cowrie shells. Sometimes fast, but most times deliberately slow, Badolo addresses each point moving close to the floor or high of the ground in complete concentration. To finish, drummer and dancer meet downstage left, exchange rhythms when finally Badolo places his head in a bowl of white clay, lifts his head and the clay streams down his face.
Badolo & Konate
RSS Feed