Asadata Dafora
Encyclopedia
Austin Dafora Horton widely known as Asadata Dafora was a Sierra Leonean multidisciplinary musician. He was one of the first Africans to introduce African drumming music to the United States, beginning in the early 1930s.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/biographies/dafora.html His artistic endeavors spanned multiple disciplines, but he is best remembered for his work in dance and music.
Dafora was a multifaceted artist, talented in opera and concert singing, dancing, choreographing and composing. In 1934, Dafora created Kykunkor (The Witch Woman), a successful musical/drama production utilizing authentic African music and dance and is considered one of the pioneers of black dance in America.
ethnic group on August 4, 1890 in Freetown
, Sierra Leone
. The son of John 'Johnnie' Warner M. Horton, the Freetown city treasurer, and his wife, a successful concert pianist. Dafora grew up in a privileged household. The surname Horton came from his great-grandfather, Moses Pindar Horton, a liberated African slave originally from Benin
. His half sister was the Constance Cummings-John, a well known Creole
Pan-Africanist.
Born into a prominent family, Dafora received a European education at the Wesleyan School in Freetown. However, he always maintained a keen interest in the study of indigenous African culture, especially traditions and languages, and knew 17 distinct African dialects. As a young man, Dafora traveled to Europe and studied at several opera houses in Italy to advance his musical training. His crossover from choral music into the medium of dance happened purely by coincidence. He claimed that he went to a performance of West African songs in a German nightclub in 1910, and overwhelmed with homesickness, he broke out into traditional African dance. His performance was so well received that the club owner contracted him to train a group of dancers to celebrate the opening of the Kiel Canal
. While touring with his dance troupe, Dafora was struck by how ignorant most people were about Africa and dedicated the rest of his career to exposing people to African culture.
Despite his talent, at the start of the Great Depression
creative performing careers were difficult to maintain, particularly for foreign African performers. However, his interactions with a group of African men at the National African Union soon led him back to his interests in African dance.
The company he formed was called Shogolo Oloba (later renamed the Federal Theater African Dance Troupe) and it strove to portray African culture in a complex and sophisticated light, not just an exotic array of mysterious spectacles. Because he strove for authenticity in his work, Dafora preferred to use native African dancers and trained them in African dialects as well as performance techniques. Dafora is credited with the development of the dance-drama, a type of production that fully integrates narrative and song into dance performance. Furthermore, Dafora was the first to successfully stage African ritual in a Western style stage production. His first work, "Kykunkor" (Witch Woman), completed in 1931, was based on African folklore. It opened in 1934 and was such an overwhelming success that it had to move to a larger theater to accommodate the audiences.
His drumming also appeared in a 1936 stage success, Orson Welles
's all-black Macbeth
performed in Harlem
, on Broadway and on tour. in Dafora's other works include "Ostrich Dance," "Zunguru" (1940), and "Batanga" (1941). He also co-authored a radio play with Orson Welles entitled "Trangama-Fanga." Around 1950, Dafora founded the Academy of Jazz. He has also been the subject of a film by Kinsley Mbadiwe called The Greater Tomorrow.
The audience consisted of only sixty people, "but after John Martin
's favorable review in the New York Times on 9 May, 425 people appeared that evening, 200 of whom had to be turned away because of an overflowing theatre." Because of Martin's influential review, the show moved to larger venues and continued to show for four months to packed audiences
The cast consisted of eighteen men and women, a mix of African and African-American performers. The show was colorful and exciting, with live music and continuous, stimulating drumming, and the audience was exposed to a "visual feast of 'semi-naked black men and women, posturing, writhing, crazily whirling, dancing insanely---vitally,'..." White American audience members looked upon the performance with preconceptions about the African culture, which to them was primitive. The dancers’ motions were alluding to "nature, animals, and the basic functions of living--especially sex..." At a time when American concert dance was dominated by austerity and an overwhelming emphasis on the struggle of the individual heroine, such as with Martha Graham
and Humphrey-Weidman
pieces, Dafora's bright, lively and exotic show was a lively and appealing alternative. The masculinity of the male dancers and the developing interest of the African culture among white modern artists and intellectuals in the U.S. and Europe also brought much attention to Kykunkor.
But Kykunkor was more than just an exciting piece, it was an innovation. Kykunkor was "the first opera presented in the United States with authentic African dances and music, performed in an African tongue by a mainly African-born cast". "Kykunkor proved that black dancers working with material from their own heritage could be successful on the American concert stage." However, at the same time it reinforced that black dancers could only be accepted into the concert dance scene if they danced within the "primitive" genres of dance; the American and European high-art concert dance was a place for white and European artists. The critic John Martin, while praising the dance, also stated that "'Negroes cannot be expected to do dances designed for another race.'" Asadata Dafora opened the field of concert dance to the black performers, but not until later in the century would Black American dancers begin to be recognized as serious and worthy performers in American concert dance.
and Katherine Dunham
.
Dafora was a multifaceted artist, talented in opera and concert singing, dancing, choreographing and composing. In 1934, Dafora created Kykunkor (The Witch Woman), a successful musical/drama production utilizing authentic African music and dance and is considered one of the pioneers of black dance in America.
Early years
Austin Dafora Horton was born into the CreoleSierra Leone Creole people
The Sierra Leone Creoles, or Krios, are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone, descendants of West Indian slaves from the Caribbean, primarily from Jamaica; freed African American slaves from the Thirteen Colonies resettled from Nova Scotia; and Liberated Africans from various parts of Africa...
ethnic group on August 4, 1890 in Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
. The son of John 'Johnnie' Warner M. Horton, the Freetown city treasurer, and his wife, a successful concert pianist. Dafora grew up in a privileged household. The surname Horton came from his great-grandfather, Moses Pindar Horton, a liberated African slave originally from Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
. His half sister was the Constance Cummings-John, a well known Creole
Sierra Leone Creole people
The Sierra Leone Creoles, or Krios, are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone, descendants of West Indian slaves from the Caribbean, primarily from Jamaica; freed African American slaves from the Thirteen Colonies resettled from Nova Scotia; and Liberated Africans from various parts of Africa...
Pan-Africanist.
Born into a prominent family, Dafora received a European education at the Wesleyan School in Freetown. However, he always maintained a keen interest in the study of indigenous African culture, especially traditions and languages, and knew 17 distinct African dialects. As a young man, Dafora traveled to Europe and studied at several opera houses in Italy to advance his musical training. His crossover from choral music into the medium of dance happened purely by coincidence. He claimed that he went to a performance of West African songs in a German nightclub in 1910, and overwhelmed with homesickness, he broke out into traditional African dance. His performance was so well received that the club owner contracted him to train a group of dancers to celebrate the opening of the Kiel Canal
Kiel Canal
The Kiel Canal , known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948, is a long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula....
. While touring with his dance troupe, Dafora was struck by how ignorant most people were about Africa and dedicated the rest of his career to exposing people to African culture.
Dafora arrives in New York
In 1929 Asadata Dafora journeyed to New York City to try and pursue his career as a musician. He was then 39 years old.Despite his talent, at the start of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
creative performing careers were difficult to maintain, particularly for foreign African performers. However, his interactions with a group of African men at the National African Union soon led him back to his interests in African dance.
The company he formed was called Shogolo Oloba (later renamed the Federal Theater African Dance Troupe) and it strove to portray African culture in a complex and sophisticated light, not just an exotic array of mysterious spectacles. Because he strove for authenticity in his work, Dafora preferred to use native African dancers and trained them in African dialects as well as performance techniques. Dafora is credited with the development of the dance-drama, a type of production that fully integrates narrative and song into dance performance. Furthermore, Dafora was the first to successfully stage African ritual in a Western style stage production. His first work, "Kykunkor" (Witch Woman), completed in 1931, was based on African folklore. It opened in 1934 and was such an overwhelming success that it had to move to a larger theater to accommodate the audiences.
His drumming also appeared in a 1936 stage success, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
's all-black Macbeth
Voodoo Macbeth
The Voodoo Macbeth is a common nickname for the Federal Theatre Project's 1936 New York production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, featuring an all-African American cast directed by Orson Welles...
performed in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, on Broadway and on tour. in Dafora's other works include "Ostrich Dance," "Zunguru" (1940), and "Batanga" (1941). He also co-authored a radio play with Orson Welles entitled "Trangama-Fanga." Around 1950, Dafora founded the Academy of Jazz. He has also been the subject of a film by Kinsley Mbadiwe called The Greater Tomorrow.
Kykunkor
Kykunkor, or The Witch Woman, was produced at the Little Theater on West 44th Street, New York City. In 1934 a studio on East 23rd Street named the Unity Theatre allowed for the new opera to premier in early May. Dafora's musical/drama is the story of a bridegroom who is cursed by a witch doctor named Kykunkor, and of this groom's attempts to remove the curse.The audience consisted of only sixty people, "but after John Martin
John Martin (dance critic)
John Martin became America’s first major dance critic in 1927. Focusing his efforts on propelling the modern dance movement, he greatly influenced the careers of dancers such as Martha Graham...
's favorable review in the New York Times on 9 May, 425 people appeared that evening, 200 of whom had to be turned away because of an overflowing theatre." Because of Martin's influential review, the show moved to larger venues and continued to show for four months to packed audiences
The cast consisted of eighteen men and women, a mix of African and African-American performers. The show was colorful and exciting, with live music and continuous, stimulating drumming, and the audience was exposed to a "visual feast of 'semi-naked black men and women, posturing, writhing, crazily whirling, dancing insanely---vitally,'..." White American audience members looked upon the performance with preconceptions about the African culture, which to them was primitive. The dancers’ motions were alluding to "nature, animals, and the basic functions of living--especially sex..." At a time when American concert dance was dominated by austerity and an overwhelming emphasis on the struggle of the individual heroine, such as with Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
and Humphrey-Weidman
Humphrey-Weidman
Humphrey-Weidman is a modern dance technique based on the theory and action of fall and recovery. It originated in 1928 when Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman broke away from the Denishawn school and moved to New York City. There they pioneered modern dance in the United States by founding a dance...
pieces, Dafora's bright, lively and exotic show was a lively and appealing alternative. The masculinity of the male dancers and the developing interest of the African culture among white modern artists and intellectuals in the U.S. and Europe also brought much attention to Kykunkor.
But Kykunkor was more than just an exciting piece, it was an innovation. Kykunkor was "the first opera presented in the United States with authentic African dances and music, performed in an African tongue by a mainly African-born cast". "Kykunkor proved that black dancers working with material from their own heritage could be successful on the American concert stage." However, at the same time it reinforced that black dancers could only be accepted into the concert dance scene if they danced within the "primitive" genres of dance; the American and European high-art concert dance was a place for white and European artists. The critic John Martin, while praising the dance, also stated that "'Negroes cannot be expected to do dances designed for another race.'" Asadata Dafora opened the field of concert dance to the black performers, but not until later in the century would Black American dancers begin to be recognized as serious and worthy performers in American concert dance.
Return to Sierra Leone
In 1960, Asadata Dafora returned to Sierra Leone where he became the cultural director of the newly independent nation. His contributions to the dance world influenced many future artists, especially African American artists such as Pearl PrimusPearl Primus
Pearl Primus was a dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the needs to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance...
and Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Mary Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator, and activist...
.