Magic to move you

The three-act dance opera is a chamber opera for dance, voices, strings and African/Afro-Cuban percussion. This opera draws on contemporary urban folklore from the blues, soul, and Africanist music, to classical sensibilities from Black dance, song, and musical perspectives.

While dance has been my lifelong career, for this project, I am a composer, librettist, and director. Percussionist and composer Atiba Rorie is a master musician and dance accompanist. Dancer/Choreographer Michelle Grant Murray directs her company, Olujimi Dance, in Miami and is co-writer for the opera. We are all inspired by water and ancestral stories. Together, we are opera! 

Opera is where the compulsions to sing, compose, dance, and create stories converge without diminishing any aspect of creativity. In our work, the vocalist and dancers are distinct, but they relate to one another in character and message. Opera is where dance, music and song explode into high drama, deeper meaning, and the ability to touch the heart and the soul.

While the written word is a gem for a storyteller, a griot finds magic in song and music and our innate need for movement. For me, the inspiration is not linear. A voice inspires poetry, a rhythm inspires a dance, a story inspires a vocal line, or any combination of elements. 

In Magic of the Water /The Dance Opera we tell a girl/woman’s story but not from the place of matricide or unrequited self-sacrifice. Our story is not a tragedy. Our story is of success and fulfillment. Opera is where abstraction, narrative, magical realism, and spirit collide to envision sheros as adventurous and courageous. As Black diaspora collaborators, our communities are our audiences. Opera is the musical and movement landscape where we connect, share and enliven Black experience through our folklore and wild imaginations.

This work is brought to life by professional artists from Duke University, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina University of the Arts, Miami Dade College, the Durham community, and pre-professional university and high-school artists. 

This initial phase of Magic of the Water/The Dance Opera was made possible by a Duke Explore Grant.