The Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater is about to close out its first national tour in nearly a decade with a milestone it has never reached before: a performance on Hawaiian soil. The Brooklyn-based company, winner of a Bessie Award, will bring its reimagined production The Revival: Djembe in the New Millennium to Waipahu on November 6, capping a 25th-anniversary tour that began earlier this year.
Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater
The event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Filcom Center’s Casamina & Flores Ballrooms, located at 94-428 Mokuola Street, Suite 302, Waipahu, HI. It represents both the company’s debut in Hawaii and the final stop on a national concert tour that launched in February — the company’s first such tour since 2017.
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Sewa Fare African Dance & Drum Company, an Oahu-based community arts organization that has spent more than two decades preserving West African music, drumming, and dance across the islands, will open the show. Sewa Fare is also co-presenting the event alongside Asase Yaa. The concert is produced by the Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation, with Executive Director K. Osei Williams serving as executive producer.
“We are excited to be making our debut performance in Hawaii,” said Williams. “After a decade of absence from touring, bringing our work back to audiences across the country has been incredibly fulfilling to our ensemble. This culminating performance will certainly be a treasured and memorable highlight of our celebratory 25th Anniversary Tour.”
The Revival was originally created in 2010 by Yao Ababio, the company’s founder and artistic director, who is both a master Djembe drummer and choreographer. For this anniversary year, the piece has been freshly reimagined with an expanded live ensemble featuring six dancers, four master drummers, a balafon player, and a guitarist. New costume designs come from Nigerian fashion designer Wunmi of the WowWow by Wunmi line, and Kweku Amankwa Hunter will deliver a live griot performance. The production also incorporates a multi-media retrospective documenting the evolution of African diaspora arts in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood.
At its core, the production explores how West African culture, music, and dance from Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Haiti, and Trinidad shaped the urban cultural landscape of Bed-Stuy from the early 1990s to today. It blends traditional and contemporary forms, weaving together Folklore, Djembe, Afrobeat, Hip-Hop, Rap, and R&B.
The tour kicked off in Brooklyn, NY, in February in recognition of Black History month and has since made stops in Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Charleston, among other cities. It also included a slot at the annual Memorial Day Weekend DanceAfrica Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Tickets for the Waipahu performance are available through 32395.encoreticketing.com. Additional information about Asase Yaa can be found on their website at https://www.asaseyaaent.org/, or by contacting Kofi Osei Williams at (646) 468-0710 or info@asaseyaaent.org.
Why it matters: This performance marks the first time a Bessie Award-winning African American dance company has brought this celebration of West African diaspora culture to Hawaii, bridging two island communities through shared artistic heritage. For audiences in Waipahu, it’s a rare opportunity to experience a nationally recognized production that traces the deep connections between African traditions and contemporary American culture.
Breanna Walther
Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation
breanna.suden@sudenpr.com
