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Writers' Archive

Alexandra Tomalonis
Reviews

Les Ballets D’Afrique Noire

By Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to the Washington Post
February 7, 2000

Les Ballets d’Afrique Noire delivers a potent history lesson as well as a grand and colorful show. “The Mandinka Epic,” the storytelling-music-and-dance drama that the 30-member troupe presented this weekend at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, is a condensation of 200 years of West African history, ending with the legend of a 14th century Mandinka king who set sail with 2000 ships to discover the Americas.

The complex story of feuding tribes and scheming royals, with a gentle, farseeing man finally coming to take his place as rightful ruler, was told in several fast-paced scenes, the performers taking on at least a dozen roles each. A simple, timeless set and gorgeous costumes showed a peaceful, rich Mandinka civilization and its warriors, soothsayers, sailors, and villagers.

The performers were immensely appealing, mixing a stylized performing style in battle scenes and ceremonies with a very natural, relaxed way of depicting incidents from everyday life. The dancing – bodies bent forward towards the earth, feet slapping the ground in fast and furious rhythms – was terrific.

This was a tale kept alive for generations by the legendary griots, the tribal oral historians who’ve kept Africa’s history safe in their memories when others forgot it. A valuable history lesson indeed.