World-Class Dance Comes to Tarrytown

On October 21, RiverArts and Tarrytown Music Hall will co-present Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, a Dance Company.

EVIDENCE, named after a Thelonious Monk jazz song, was founded in 1985 by Ronald K. Brown, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. The company is still based there. In fact, they currently rehearse in the same Bedford-Stuyvesant building where Brown took his first dance class after seeing the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform on a school trip. Brown went on to study at The Ailey School and is deeply rooted in the African American dance culture and community. In many ways, his company’s style is a continuation of Ailey’s movement lineage, but it is also something entirely of itself: a fusion of traditional African, Afro-Cuban and contemporary dance forms.

The company’s performances are technically impressive—they have won countless prestigious awards—but also soulful. His repertory explores the highs and lows of the human experience, focusing on themes of resilience, spirituality and joy.

“I think he is a visionary,” says Maxine Sherman, former principal dancer with both the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Sherman is now RiverArt’s Producer & Artistic Director of Dance. “It’s everything I love about dance: it’s spiritual, technical, rhythmical and uplifting. He’s socially conscious and aware.”

The October 21 performance is one in a long lineage of dance programs that have been offered by RiverArts for nearly 20 of its 60 years. During those years, Sherman has coordinated annual dance concerts that have featured world-renowned companies like The Limón Dance Company, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and Ballet Hispánico. This year’s Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE concert at Tarrytown Music Hall presents a sampling of movement and music rooted in the African Diaspora, featuring three of Brown’s most loved works:

First is Upside Down (1998), a high-energy excerpt from the evening-length work Destiny. The ensemble piece was created in collaboration with Rokiya Kone of Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, a company from the Ivory Coast, and is set to music by Wunmi, the Nigerian-British queen of Afro House.

Following that is the duet March (1995). The excerpt from the longer work Lessons is set to a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and examines strength, masculinity and race through contemporary movement.

Closing out the evening will be Grace (1999/2003), originally made for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and now considered one of their repertory’s masterpieces. It tells the story of a goddess’s journey to Earth to spread grace among the mortals. The musical score features Roy Davis Jr.’s electronic house music and Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrobeat rhythms, as well as Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday.

Photo by David Torrence