Is it fair to review a dance piece by saying first and foremost that, while I admire the artistic purpose of the work, it simply isn’t to my taste? That is how I felt watching Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, which he formed in 1985. I was interested in seeing the company because I have seen Brown’s work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and liked it. Thus I was particularly keen to see Evidence in its week-long residency at the Joyce.
A few caveats: I probably need more familiarity with Evidence’s repertoire. I probably need to familiarize myself with the dance and musical traditions of Africa and Cuba. With that being said, there’s a saying that you shouldn’t need a program book to explain a dance to you.
The first piece was Walking Out the Dark (2001), described in the program notes as a “hauntingly beautiful quartet mirroring conversations among friends, family and lovers.” There was obviously an attempt to thread the needle between American slavery (the work starts with the four dancers seemingly bearing the burden of slavery), to Cuban musical traditions to African tribal dance traditions. It was ambitious.
But what I mostly remember from this work was its sheer length. About an hour long, with so many different sections that I lost track of “where” the dance was. There were sections I loved – the magnificent drummer About Camara onstage with the dancers seemingly moving their bodies in response to the beats, the African tribal dance portion. And then there were sections which made me scratch my head – Mr. Brown comes onstage to explain why the dancers are showered in dust. And then the sections that quite frankly went on too long. There were several times when I thought: this would be the perfect time to end it, but it just kept going on … and on.
Maybe my reaction to Walking Out the Dark would have differed had it not been for my reaction to the evening’s second piece, Torch. After an intermission, I was delighted with everything about Torch. It started with a by-now familiar cliché of a female dancer being held aloft and then falling backwards. After that, Torch was almost all upbeat and happy. Torch essentially seemed to be a joyous celebration of life. I loved the house/electronica music and the African folk-inflected steps. By the end of the evening, I was dancing along with most of the audience in their seats. Torch was everything Walking Out the Dark was not.
At the close of the performance, Ronald K. Brown took a brief curtain call. He is evidently in quite frail health, and the audience rewarded him with a well-deserved and loving ovation.
