REVIEW: ‘The City of Others’ crosses time, borders through dance

Passersby would be forgiven for wondering whether the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center had turned into a nightclub Wednesday at 3 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. Sankofa Danzafro, an Afro-Colombian dance group from Medellín, Colombia, performed a piece called “The City of Others,” that explored the struggles  people of color in urban communities face, replete with thumping, rhythmic music.

In Akan, a Ghanian language, Sankofa means “to return to the root,” and “The City of Others” fully embodied the word’s etymology and philosophy. In addition to the high-energy techno beats inspired by Latin and hip-hop music, a portion of the choreography was set to Vallenato music, a popular genre of Colombian folk music where the plaintive, mournful crooning of one of the dancers was accompanied by djembes, a West African goblet drum, and maracas.

The choreography also seamlessly integrated the traditional and the contemporary. Age-old dances such as the Bullerengue, the Currulao and the Abozao transitioned into the kind of moves found on the dance floor at a frat party.

The heavy emphasis on history and lineage was incongruous with the dancers’ costumes, which were the standard business casual attire one might find in a corporate environment — ties and button down shirts tucked into slacks. They alluded to the daily 9-to-5 grind, a routine familiar to city dwellers. However, the dancers’ feet remained bare, suggesting a tie, however faint, to their ancestral roots.

The most impressive aspect of “The City of Others” was the dancers’ stamina; they were able to maintain their intensity for a full hour. The group was small, comprising only 12 dancers — five women and seven men. But the energy demanded of them by the choreography was that of a full corps. The program, which was full of leaps, stomps and kicks, involved expansive, expressive gestures. There was no half-hearted going-through-the-motions, no listlessness or signs of fatigue; each performer gave 110 percent, all the way through to the final bows. In a venue as small and intimate as Kaufman’s space, the dancers’ strength and spirit were infectious. At the end, the audience stood up to unleash a thunderous round of applause.

Afterward, Kaufman Vice Dean Jodie Gates, Sankofa Danzafro artistic director Rafael Palacios and two dancers, who took the stage still in costume and struggling to catch their breath, held a Q&A session. Through a translator, Palacios, who spoke in Spanish, relayed his inspiration for the choreography — the hostility, loneliness and discrimination he experienced living in Medellín — and how he wanted to examine the treatment of African diaspora communities living in Colombia as second class citizens.

It’s clear from Sankofa Danzafro’s popularity (The New York Times called the show a “revelation”) that their mission and message has resonated with audiences beyond Medellín, and that marginalized people from all walks of life can relate to its message of rising up, claiming the political and social power that has been denied to them for so long, and declaring — this is everyone’s city.