Asadata Dafora - Kykunkor

Kykunkor, or The Witch Woman, was produced at the Little Theater on West 44th Street, New York City. In 1934 a studio on East 23rd Street named the Unity Theatre allowed for the new opera to premier in early May. Dafora's musical/drama is the story of a bridegroom who is cursed by a witch doctor named Kykunkor, and of this groom's attempts to remove the curse.

The audience consisted of only sixty people, "but after John Martin's favorable review in the New York Times on 9 May, 425 people appeared that evening, 200 of whom had to be turned away because of an overflowing theatre." Because of Martin's influential review, the show moved to larger venues and continued to show for four months to packed audiences

The cast consisted of eighteen men and women, a mix of African and African-American performers. The show was colorful and exciting, with live music and continuous, stimulating drumming, and the audience was exposed to a "visual feast of 'semi-naked black men and women, posturing, writhing, crazily whirling, dancing insanely---vitally,'..." White American audience members looked upon the performance with preconceptions about the African culture, which to them was primitive. The dancers’ motions were alluding to "nature, animals, and the basic functions of living--especially sex..." At a time when American concert dance was dominated by austerity and an overwhelming emphasis on the struggle of the individual heroine, such as with Martha Graham and Humphrey-Weidman pieces, Dafora's bright, lively and exotic show was a lively and appealing alternative. The masculinity of the male dancers and the developing interest of the African culture among white modern artists and intellectuals in the U.S. and Europe also brought much attention to Kykunkor.

But Kykunkor was more than just an exciting piece, it was an innovation. Kykunkor was "the first opera presented in the United States with authentic African dances and music, performed in an African tongue by a mainly African-born cast". "Kykunkor proved that black dancers working with material from their own heritage could be successful on the American concert stage." However, at the same time it reinforced that black dancers could only be accepted into the concert dance scene if they danced within the "primitive" genres of dance; the American and European high-art concert dance was a place for white and European artists. The critic John Martin, while praising the dance, also stated that "'Negroes cannot be expected to do dances designed for another race.'" Asadata Dafora opened the field of concert dance to the black performers, but not until later in the century would Black American dancers begin to be recognized as serious and worthy performers in American concert dance.