In his native Burkina Faso, Olivier Tarpaga has said, “dance and music is one body.” In the latest example of the absurdist, politically charged dance-theater for which he both composes and choreographs, the musicians number five and the dancers seven, all onstage. More importantly, the drama itself is rhythmically conceived. The dancers, mostly fellow West Africans, move to the music, beside the music, and in silence: all the possible permutations. The effect is a depth and spaciousness rare in dances for which music figures largely. And this poetic resonance proves a saving grace when the conditions on the ground to which the work alludes are so dire. For the NYC premiere of Once the dust settles, flowers bloom, at New York’s Joyce Theater—part of the multi-venue Crossing the Line Festival 2023—Tarpaga had in mind the hundreds of thousands of villagers that local thugs and al-Qaeda operatives have driven from Burkina Faso in the last few years. —Apollinaire Scherr