Asadata Dafora

Austin Dafora Horton was born into the Creole ethnic group on 4 August 1890 in Freetown, British Sierra Leone.

As a young man, Dafora travelled to Europe and studied at several opera houses in Italy to advance his musical training, learning English.

[7] His performance was so well received that the club owner contracted him to train a group of dancers to celebrate the opening of the Kiel Canal.

Dafora is credited with the development of the dance-drama, a type of production that fully integrates narrative and song into dance performance.

He was also the choreographer and drummer in a 1936 stage success, Orson Welles's all-black Macbeth performed in Harlem, on Broadway and on national tour.

With his collaborator, Abdul Assen, he helped create the unique sound and feel of the Haitian "voodoo" sections of the performance.

[20] The show was colourful 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,'..."[19] 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..."[21] 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 US and Europe also brought much attention to Kykunkor.

In 1939, Dafora appeared at the Ridgeway Theatre in White Plains, New York, as "Congo Witch Doctor" in Eugene O’Neill's play, The Emperor Jones.

The production starred Paul Robeson and cast some members of his African dance troupe, including Sakor Jar, Lamina Kor and Antiga.