Re:Incarnation: A contemporary dance show holds at J Randle Centre June 5 – 7
By Qudus Onikeku
THIS June, we bring my seminal show Re:Incarnation back home to Lagos for a public run at the J. Randle Centre, and honestly, I’m carrying this moment with a lot of gratitude and emotion. Fresh from a critically acclaimed Asian premiere at the prestigious Taipei Performing Arts Center in Taiwan, the work now returns to the city and community that made it possible in the first place.
When we created Re:Incarnation in 2021, I don’t think any of us fully imagined the journey ahead. Since then, the production has travelled across nearly 20 countries through Africa, Europe, America, and Asia, with over 80 performances and three different casts carrying the spirit of the work across the world. To my knowledge, no Nigerian stage production has ever travelled at this scale.
But beyond the milestones, the reviews, or the standing ovations, what moves me most is what this work has done for people. I have watched dancers who once only dreamed of leaving their neighbourhoods suddenly find themselves performing on some of the world’s major stages. I have seen musicians, technicians, costume designers, stage managers, and young producers grow into possibilities they perhaps did not even know existed for themselves. Somewhere along the line, the work stopped being simply a production and became a living ecosystem of people, relationships, careers, memories, and transformations.
And maybe that is what Re:Incarnation has always truly been about. The work draws deeply from Yorùbá cosmology, body memory, spirituality, urban youth culture, music, and contemporary African movement languages. It explores cyclical ideas of birth, death, and rebirth, through the bodies of a new generation. But at its core, it is also a meditation on continuity — on what survives us and what becomes possible when people decide to move together.
This Lagos edition feels especially meaningful for me personally. To arrive at this point in my journey — not only as a successful artiste and choreographer, but also as the CEO and Centre Director of the J. Randle Centre for Yorùbá Culture and History — is deeply humbling. Every day, I remain grateful for the privilege of helping shape a cultural institution that is slowly becoming a living home for gathering, performance, memory, and possibility in our city.
What we are building is still fragile, still ambitious, still unfolding. But seeing audiences gradually return to live theatre, seeing families, young people, elders, tourists, artists, and strangers gathering again in shared space gives me a kind of hope I cannot fully describe.
This run of Re:Incarnation is therefore, a celebration of growth and resilience. A celebration of the possibility that live performance culture can thrive again here at home. And truly, none of this exists without community.
Thank you for believing in my work. Thank you for supporting my journey. Thank you for carrying this dream with us. I sincerely hope to see you at the theatre, buy for you and your people, if you can’t be there we will equally appreciate you buying for those who can’t afford to, we have 1,500 tickets to sell.
With love and gratitude!
Qudus Onikeku
