Taylor Swift’s Opalite has been making its way up the pop billboard charts. It isn’t my favorite Taylor single, but it is a bop. The repetitive chords just make you want to bop your head and dance along.
Modern dance that is a bop is so rare. A lot of time, modern dance feels like Eat Your Spinach and Do Your Homework. This is why Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence performance from the other night (they are in a one-week residency at the Joyce) had me almost crying happy tears. It was just so catchy, so danceable, the audience was moving in their seats.
Evidence’s Program B was designed as a tribute to Toni Pierce-Sands, a muse of Ronald K. Brown, who passed away last November. But the program came across as a true celebration of a life, as the joy onstage transmitted to the audience with a directness that rarely happens in live performance. It was a fitting way for the Joyce Theater to celebrate Black History Month.
Brown’s Torch (2013) started the program. It was maybe my favorite piece on the program. It was Brown’s by-now familiar mix of Afro-Caribbean club beats and modern dance. The music by Teddy Douglas and DJ Zinhle was insanely catchy. My favorite part of Torch is the line dancing that replicates actual club line-dancing. Over and over again, the dancers form lines and jiggy up and down the stage. It looks so spontaneous, although it’s carefully choreographed. I also loved the baggy white and green pants that costume designer Keiko Voltaire designed.
Clear as Tear Water (2006) is a solo choreographed for Toni Pierce-Sands. There was live music: Meshell Ndegeocello singing Heaven. It is a typical Ailey-esque solo, with high developpé extensions and many adagio moves. If you’ve seen one, you’ve sort of seen all of them. Samiyah Lynnice was fantastic: beautiful, strong, with gorgeous lines. But this solo was brief and rather low impact.
The first half of the program closed out with Where the Light Shines Through (2017). It is actually the company premiere of this work. The work is a bit like Torch with its Afro-Caribbean club feel, but there is also a good-natured battle of the sexes, as the men and women seem to be dancing as a competition. The women come out first, then the men, and the back-and-forth is fun. Keiko Voltaire’s colorful costumes looked like African tribal robes. I loved the high kicks the dancers did. They looked playful, joyous. And again, this whole dance is a bop. People next to me were bopping in their seats.
After the intermission, it was probably the most well-known work in Brown’s opus: Grace. Grace has been a staple of the Alvin Ailey company for years. Grace has an angels vs devils theme. The smaller stage of the Joyce added an intimacy to the piece. And of course, the finale where the stage is flooded with “angels” (I guess they won?) is exhilarating.
At the end of the evening, Ronald K. Brown came onstage. He looked extremely frail but managed to dance along a little with the rest of his company. And I NEVER dance (I was born with two left feet) but I also danced a little with the rest of the audience. What a happy evening.
With thanks to Spirit Priester for pointing out the captioning error. The review has been duly amended.
