have you heard the news? there’s good dancin’ tonight
Ronald K. Brown and Arcell Abuag (far right) join EVIDENCE onstage at end of emotional evening at the Joyce (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Beloved dancer, choreographer, and community leader Ron Brown came to the Joyce last night to make a statement. And what a statement it was.
In 1985, Brown, who was born and raised in Bed-Stuy, founded Brooklyn-based Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, a Dance Company. I’ve been following his work for more than two decades and have interviewed him several times, including at a great lunch where we talked about his childhood and his troupe’s twentieth anniversary season, two Brooklyn guys chewing the fat.
In April 2021, Brown, just fifty-four, suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his left side. But with the help of his faith, his dedication and determination, and his life partner, EVIDENCE dancer and associate artistic director Arcell Cabuag, he is making giant strides.
Brown’s continuing recovery means even more to me now that someone very close to me has recently had a stroke, but thankfully one that has not impacted their speech or mobility. Still, both health scares bring up my own relationship with grief, which I wrote about here, and death, which I detailed here.
Last year, for EVIDENCE’s annual January season at the Joyce, Brown presented the company premiere of Open Door and the world premiere of The Equality of Night and Day (TEND). In December, he staged a new production of 2009’s Dancing Spirit for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s sixty-fifth anniversary season, at City Center. But for EVIDENCE’s current run at the Joyce (January 16–21), he selected two repertory pieces instead of new works, and they speak volumes.
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE return to the Joyce with meaningful Walking Out the Dark (photo by Ernesto Mancebo)
The evening starts with 2001’s Walking Out the Dark, a powerful dance that begins with an offstage Brown discussing grief. Then Demetrius Burns, Joyce Edwards, Gregory Hamilton, and Isaiah K. Harvey appear, barefoot, wearing earth-toned costumes by Carolyn Meckha Cherry and Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya and standing in individual spotlights. They break out into solos and duets, then return to their spots, investigating connection and communication. They fall to the ground on their backs at the end of the first section, then rise up like phoenixes for the second. Tsubasa Kamei’s lighting, based on Brenda Gray’s original design, soon creates a haze, then a heavenly radiance emanates from above; the quartet’s costumes become more colorful as their interaction grows.
At one point the lights go out and then on again, and Brown is suddenly standing stage left on his own, sharing more thoughts on grief, “wishing the ghosts were here.”
Later, Abou Camara enters, playing djembe drums, and Cabuag, dressed in all white, performs the “Gratitude” solo, which became a celebration not only of community but of Brown’s recovery. Cabuag, in his twenty-fifth year with EVIDENCE, dazzled the crowd with his electrifying movement and enormous smile, eliciting hoots and hollers from the audience, which was not sold out as usual, probably because the program consisted of two older pieces. Anyone who stayed away for that reason made a serious mistake.
The music includes Sweet Honey in the Rock’s gospel blues song “Oh Death” (from the appropriately titled album Good News), in which the group sings, “You left me standing by the bedside / crying, / Oh death.”
The evening concludes with 2012’s Torch, a tribute to the life and memory of former Brown student and dance enthusiast Beth Young, who died of cancer in January 2012. But there are no bedside tears as Burns, Stephanie Chronopoulos, Austin Warren Coats, Edwards, Hamilton, Harvey, and Shaylin D. Watson lift up Valériane Louisy, who glows like a beacon of hope. For the next half hour, Louisy exhilaratingly weaves in and around the other dancers to music by Teddy Douglas and DJ Zinhle (featuring Busiswa Gqulu), remixed by Brown.
As the company took its bows after Torch, Brown joined them onstage, using his three-pronged cane, accompanied by Cabuag. It was a beautiful, inspirational moment that was lost on no one.
“Our destination in the midst of unrest is truth, peace, and solidarity. Focus on what is right, continue to do the work, and keep love and truth at the front,” Brown said in May 2020 about TEND, as the pandemic was spreading around the world.
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but those are words to live by, quite a statement.