
By Liana Wilson-Graff
This week at The Joyce Theater, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company performs distinctly human stories. From journeys to spiritual heights, back down to the grit and groundedness of internal and external warfare, there is much to absorb in this triumph of a program that celebrates 40 years of masterful choreographic work and artistry. The night honors these 40 years by showcasing all the range within Brown’s signature style combining African, Afro-Cuban, and contemporary dance. The show, made up of two alternating triple bill programs, truly feels like a shower of love upon Brown, the company’s Associate Artistic Director Arcell Cabuag, the dancers, and the work they’ve accomplished as a multigenerational, continuous collective. After all, you would expect no less from a New York audience taking in the genius and heart of this Brooklyn-based company. Not only do we gratefully receive Ronald K. Brown signatures restaged, but we experience work reimagined with guest artists that meld and contribute beautifully to the pieces they are a part of.

The show begins with a worthy introduction to the world of this choreographer and his dancers in Serving Nia. Originally choreographed for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in 2001, this restaging of the piece honored the recently passed, beloved Judith Jameson, and did so with wonderful grace. It’s hard not to remark on the transcendent quiet of this piece. Dancers traverse the space, moving in Brown’s signature style that is not without forceful movement, interspersed with the smoothness of jazz and contemporary style, all done without even a footfall to be heard. The effect this has is a real sense of comfort and calm; the feeling of confidence in your skin, and confidence and comfort in the community and environment that surrounds you. The dancers watch each other with a serene yet focused gaze and they move as individuals separate from the group, and through and with each other in discordant harmony. The feelings of rapture in this piece come from that harmony, the jazz spirituals as a musical backdrop, and from small but significant moments of individual joy and fulfillment dancers experience when they allow themselves wonderful mini-eruptions of pure jam. In addition to the religious motif, this piece is a love letter to dance and where it can take you as a body and a spirit.

The second piece, Order My Steps, is filled with transitions in mood, yet all within the ever-relevant and poignant theme of war in its many forms. Beginning with a sort of resoluteness in the face of war, set to the music of Bob Marley, the piece takes a distinct turn onto another face of the thematic die, with guest performer, Kevin Boseman’s performance of his brother, the dearly departed actor Chadwick Boseman’s words while the company moves around him. Here the piece takes a turn towards the inner life. The repeated phrase “make war on yourself” is prominent and clings to the mind as Kevin Boseman so strongly performs the true storytelling his brother left behind; astounding storytelling of his own life and torments in writing. Dancers perform a beautiful opening and closing of the self, and gazing upon the self from many angles, as we journey with Boseman through an intimate telling of addiction and war within the body and mind. The piece ends, set to Bob Marley’s, “Exodus”, as the dancers find their community organization. They locate practices to move as one within suffering and find their steps toward something better, something transformative.

The third piece in the program alternates night by night between Grace and High Life. Grace, a now 25-year-old work, is a true joy to experience. The piece is set to a landscape of house music that delivers you and each dancer toward spiritual liberation. This liberation comes to fruition as dancers are welcomed to heaven, surrounded by the vibrations of gospel, with the incredible voice of singer, Gordon Chambers. The spirit of all who attend Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE’s show will no doubt be fed for a long time.
Ronald K. Brown and EVIDENCE A Dance Company’s 2025 dual triple bill program is presented by The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) and is playing at The Joyce Theater from January 14-19. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$72 including fees, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.
Be the first to comment