Orisun Omi means "the source of water" in Yoruba.
No matter how people may change, the well remains the same.
Beautiful dancers will always be beautiful dancers. Here are many
beautiful dancers hard at work in a luminous tropical springtime.
Salvador da Bahia has been called the "Africa of the Americas."
African cultures brought to Bahia by the slave trade remain
a dominant influence today.
When Arthur Hall and three members of Ile Ife in Philadelphia traveled to Bahia
in 1978, they found that between the English speaking North Americans and the
Portuguese speaking South Americans, the common language was Yoruba.
Orisun Omi explores the cultures common to both Bahia and Philadelphia.
Dances include a strong men's company burning up the Ghanaian Harvest,
a strong women's company burning up Celebration,
and Dance Conga, Mascaron, and Yanvallu.
Arthur Hall dances Obatala over the whole.
Orisun Omi
(The Well)
By Bruce Williams
Ile Ife Film of Bayne Wms Film MICA
(1982, color and black and white, 28:48)
Arthur Hall, choreography, artistic director
Bruce Williams, filmmaker
Farel Johnson, music director
Tamba, Washington, musicians
Reginaldo Daniel Flores, songs of the Orishas
Ron Payton, dancer
with members of state ballet,
the federal university
and the community of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil
with the support of
Philadelphia Bahia Club of the Partners of the Americas,
Valley Filmworks,
Coca-Cola Company e Refrigerantes da Bahia S.A.,
Maine Arts Commission,
Universidade Federal da Bahia,
US Information Service,
Associacao Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos,
Hotel Casa Grande,
Hans DuPluy,
Clyde Morgan da UFBA,
Monika Solkosky,
Teatro Castro Alves
"Awo, awo, awo," the film says, meaning many things are hidden.
What is revealed contains further mysteries.
Orisun Omi travels to the well for those with eyes to see.
Orisun Omi was first shown at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Arthur Hall |
The Arthur Hall Collection |
Ile Ife Films
during the
exhibition Treasures of Ancient Nigeria.
It has been screened at Ile Ife in Philadelphia
and Ile-Ife in Nigeria.
There were suggestions made about the film in Nigeria
which lead to the digital addition of a subtitle in the
current edition. Also added was a credit for Ron Payton,
who somehow was overlooked in the caligraphed titles
by Stuart Ross.
The film was last seen in Philadelphia at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
during the
city's tribute to Arthur Hall in 1995.
The Pennsylvania Academy of Art
Arthur's 16mm print of Orisun Omi,
one of two prints of the film ever made,
was lost in Philadelphia by Evangeline Brown.
The 16mm print in the Arthur Hall Collection is damaged at the tail.
It was last screened April 14, 1996, at the Farnsworth Art Museum
in Rockland, Maine. (see
press release)
It is now in the Special Collections Research Center
Temple University Libraries
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
