Words to choreograph: Ritual archetypes of/at Esu’s crossroads

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this essay, I argue that the ritual aesthetics of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman present special challenges when teaching students and producing plays for audiences in the United States. Reflecting on my choreography and collaboration with director Femi Euba on the 2008 production of Death and the King’s Horseman at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, I discuss the play’s reliance on dance for dramatic storytelling and the tonal sensibilities in the text’s approach to English. In my work as a choreographer, I created a layered process to teach performers in the Kalamazoo production how to embody the tonal textures of the verse. This principle of the play’s dramatic language was the central inspiration for my choreography – a detailed choreography of words. Through performance, the dancers translated these often-misunderstood elements of Soyinka’s text, and in doing so, facilitated an illuminating connection between the play and its audience.