The Witch Women Opera - Tenzin

Maureen Needham gives us a summarized biography and a very intricate and detail description of Dafora's Opera. Austin Dafora had a huge influence in bringing the African culture in America despite the hardships.
Even though Kyunkor was not accepted as an Opera it gained popular recognition. It was not considered an Opera because of its opposing standards and presentation to the western operas. It involved dancing, percussion, spoken word, and singing. And African dance techniques and aesthetic such as polyrythm, asymmetry, bent knees, arms and syncopation, different from the traditional ballet style. And the critics preferred to call his opera a "ritual drama."
Although his opera were accepted by some and rejected by others as an "opera," most of the audience were still misunderstanding the African aesthetic. And understanding African aesthetic in the stereotypical tribal and savagery way. Critics responded with words such as " sexual and intense," and "animal and subhumanly skillful."
Dafora was definitely a pioneer of the African influence, however, it was the later generation of African American dancers who fought and danced to give the African dance and culture a positive identity different from the old notion.