Asadata dafora biography definition

Sierra Leonean multidisciplinary musician (1890–1965)

Asadata Dafora
Birth name	Austin Dafora Horton
Born	(1890-08-04)4 August 1890 Freetown, British Sierra Leone
Died	4 March 1965(1965-03-04) (aged 74) Harlem, New Royalty City
Genres	African drum music, dance music
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, producer, social activist
Years active	1929–1960

Musical artist

Austin Dafora Horton (4 August 1890 – 4 March 1965), further known as Asadata Dafora, was a Sierra Leonean multidisciplinary minstrel.

He was one of nobleness first Africans to introduce Human drumming music to the Combined States, beginning in the precisely 1930s.^[1] His artistic endeavours spanned multiple disciplines, but he appreciation best remembered for his travail in dance and music.

Dafora was a multifaceted artist, brilliant in opera and concert telling, dancing, choreographing and composing.

Discern 1934, Dafora created Kykunkor (The Witch Woman), a successful musical/drama production using authentic African refrain and dance and is advised one of the pioneers operate black dance in America.

Early years

Austin Dafora Horton was domestic into the Creole ethnic vocation on 4 August 1890 thwart Freetown, British Sierra Leone.

Recognized was the son of Ablutions "Johnnie" William Horton, the Port city treasurer, and his better half, a concert pianist. Dafora grew up in a privileged household.^[2] Some doubt surrounds his kith and kin surname. Horton may have build from his great-grandfather, Moses Poet Horton, a liberated African serf originally from Benin.

Despite Dafora's own assertion in program abridge for Kykunkor that his great-grandfather was a freed slave, dates indicate it was in reality Dafora's grandfather [Moses Pindar Horton] who experienced slavery and who was repatriated to Sierra Leone.^[3] His half sister was Constance Cummings-John, a well known CreolePan-Africanist.^[4]

Born into a prominent family, Dafora received a European education make certain the Wesleyan School in Freetown.^[5] However, he always maintained cool keen interest in the bone up on of indigenous African culture, vastly traditions and languages, and 17 distinct African languages.

As ingenious young man, Dafora travelled take in hand Europe and studied at a few opera houses in Italy wish advance his musical training, lore bursary English. French. Spanish. German shaft Italian.^[6] His crossover from hymn music into the medium disturb dance happened purely by correspondence.

He claimed that he went to a performance of Westward African songs in a Teutonic nightclub in 1910, and beset with homesickness, he broke disseminate into traditional African dance.^[7] Crown performance was so well regular that the club owner shrunk him to train a authority of dancers to celebrate significance opening of the Kiel Bagman.

While touring with his gambol troupe, Dafora was struck saturate how ignorant most people were about Africa and dedicated justness rest of his career in depth exposing people to African culture.^[8]

Dafora arrives in New York

In 1929 Asadata Dafora journeyed to Another York City to try tutorial pursue his career as clean musician.

He was then 39 years old.^[9]

Despite his talent, shell the start of the Middling Depression creative performing careers were difficult to maintain, particularly gather foreign African performers.^[10] However, authority interactions with a group have fun African men at the Nationwide African Union soon led him back to his interests cut African dance.^[11] The company subside formed was called Shogolo Oloba (sometimes known as the In alliance Theater African Dance Troupe ray Asadata Dafora Horton and surmount African Dancers) and it strove to portray African culture enjoy a complex and sophisticated defray, not just an exotic fix of mysterious spectacles.^[12] Because recognized strove for authenticity in realm work, Dafora preferred to reduce in size native African dancers and credit them in African languages pass for well as performance techniques.

Dafora is credited with the get out of bed of the dance-drama, a derive of production that fully integrates narrative and song into beam performance. Furthermore, Dafora was glory first to successfully stage Continent ritual in a Western understanding stage production.^[13] His first see to, "Kykunkor" (Witch Woman), completed expose 1931, was based on Mortal folklore.

It opened in 1934 and was such an unbearable success that it had take in hand move to a larger thespian to accommodate the audiences.

He was also the choreographer impressive drummer in a 1936 tier success, Orson Welles's all-black Macbeth performed in Harlem, on Tier and on national tour. Reconcile with his collaborator, Abdul Assen, elegance helped create the unique give the impression that and feel of the State "voodoo" sections of the performance.^[14] He toured with his mill "Awassa Astrige/Ostrich" (1932), "Zunguru" (1940) and "Batanga" (1941).^[8] He besides co-authored a radio play cream Orson Welles entitled "Trangama-Fanga".^[15] Posse 1950, Dafora founded the Institution of Jazz.

He has too been the subject of deft film by Kinsley Mbadiwe labelled The Greater Tomorrow.

Kykunkor

Kykunkor, features The Witch Woman, was revive at the Little Theater desire West 44th Street, New Dynasty City.^[16] In 1934, a cottage on East 23rd Street first name the Unity Theatre allowed vindicate the new opera to foremost in early May.^[17] Dafora's musical/drama is the story of on the rocks bridegroom who is cursed emergency a witch doctor named Kykunkor, and of this groom's attempts to remove the curse.^[18]

The rendezvous consisted of only sixty group, "but after John Martin's approbatory review in the New Royalty Times on 9 May, 425 people appeared that evening, Cardinal of whom had to breed turned away because of cease overflowing theatre." (Perhaps this psychiatry not accurate.

The Little Theatre arts had 300 seats when surpass was built in 1912.

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By 1924, it locked away been expanded to seat 599) Because of Martin's influential analysis, the show moved to dominant venues and continued to event for four months to filled audiences^[19]

The cast consisted of 18 men and women, a confuse of African and African-American performers.^[20] The show was colourful sit exciting, with live music survive continuous, stimulating drumming, and rank audience was exposed to a-one "visual feast of 'semi-naked swart men and women, posturing, wiggly, crazily whirling, dancing insanely—vitally,'..."^[19] Pallid American audience members looked atop the performance with preconceptions acquire the African culture, which health check them was primitive.

The dancers' motions were alluding to "nature, animals, and the basic functions of living—especially sex..."^[21] At unmixed time when American concert drip was dominated by austerity additional an overwhelming emphasis on rectitude struggle of the individual lady, such as with Martha Gospeler and Humphrey-Weidman pieces, Dafora's brilliance, lively and exotic show was a lively and appealing ballot.

The masculinity of the man's dancers and the developing sponsorship of the African culture halfway white modern artists and the learned in the US and Collection also brought much attention end up Kykunkor.^[22]

But Kykunkor was more outstrip just an exciting piece, essential parts was an innovation.

Kykunkor was "the first opera presented clasp the United States with accurate African dances and music, over in an African tongue contempt a mainly African-born cast".^[23] "Kykunkor proved that black dancers compatible with material from their soothe heritage could be successful typical the American concert stage."^[24] On the other hand, at the same time thorough reinforced that black dancers could only be accepted into justness concert dance scene if they danced within the "primitive" genres of dance; the American turf European high-art concert dance was a place for white spell European artists.

The critic Can Martin, while praising the glint, also stated that "'Negroes cannot be expected to do dances designed for another race.'"^[25] Asadata Dafora opened the field allude to concert dance to the sooty performers, but not until posterior in the century would Swarthy American dancers begin to fix recognised as serious and constant performers in American concert advise.

Other stage work

In 1939, Dafora appeared at the Ridgeway Theatricalism in White Plains, New Royalty, as "Congo Witch Doctor" increase by two Eugene O’Neill's play, The King Jones. The production starred Saul Robeson and cast some human resources of his African dance company, including Sakor Jar, Lamina Kor and Antiga.^[26]

Return to Sierra Leone

In 1960, Asadata Dafora returned delve into Sierra Leone where he became the cultural director of illustriousness newly independent nation.

His tolerance to the dance world acted upon many future artists, especially Somebody American artists such as Prize Primus, Esther Rolle and Katherine Dunham.

Death

Dafora died in retreat at Harlem, New York, leave town 4 March 1965.

References

External links