An African Opera

What is an opera? That question came up to my mind while I was reading this article. My western musical education tells me that an opera is a composition that tells a very simple story, it is mainly focus on the music and how it portraits the emotions that are shown on stage. Dances are also use in some operas but they are not the main focus.

After having read this article I am not certain if my definition is right anymore. Why not having an opera that focuses on dance as much as on the music. And what is even more interesting, why not having music that is mainly rhythmic.

Asadata Dafora's opera Kykundor, or the Witch Woman incorporated his African tradition to such an European style of music. The differences can be seen in both the dances and the music. The choreography set the main differences between Ballet and African dance. The synchronous movements expected in ballet is not present in African aesthetic, instead the "drums call for movement in rhythmic synchrony(..)", what is more the symmetry of ballet is far from being a characteristic in African dance, in which the different body parts are free to move at its own pace but always complementing the other movements. African dance is more integral and exercises a democracy of the body parts.

Dafora's work thus is an early representation of what African dance really is and it opened the doors for African American dancers to perform and be taken seriously, as artists rather than exotic people.