The Osiligi Troupe at St. Nicholas

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The Osiligi Troupe gave a beautiful performance at St. Nicholas.  The members of the troupe were so obviously enjoying themselves, their congenial relationship with the audience was totally uncontrived.  Nor did they feel any need to  compromise the extraordinary nature of their singing in order to please western ears.   All the aspects of their performance, costume, movement and sound, combined to create the richly textural expression of a completely different culture.  The men are small in build and delicate in feature: they sing with unusually high voices, and the height gained by their leaps is astonishing.  The women are demure and provide the only rythmic accompaniment, created by the dancing of the necklesses as they move forwards in rhythm.  Nearly all the singing was accompanied by a forwards movement of the whole troupe,  as if related to the communal activities of a nomadic and hunting life.  Whether this is true or not I don’t know, but the length and scale of St. Nicholas provided a good venue for creating a sense of song and dance created for travelling across a landscape rather than in an arena.