Inner Fire

New Yorkers who don’t have a fireplace during this deep January freeze can head to the Joyce Theater to see Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence A Dance Company, where the russet backdrops, rolling hips, and reggae beats give off plenty of warmth. The passion of Brown’s “Grace,” which is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, is enough to fire up even the coldest of souls. You may enter the theater shivering and complaining about congestion pricing, but you will exit inspired to find your own peace—or maybe even become a better person. “If you have to make war, make war on yourself,” said guest artist Kevin Boseman in Brown’s “Order My Steps,” ardently reciting text written by his late brother, the actor Chadwick Boseman.

Performance

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence A Dance Company: “Serving Nia” / “Grace” / “Order My Steps”

Place

The Joyce Theater, New York, NY, January 14, 2025

Words

Faye Arthurs

Valeriane Louisy, Stephanie Chronopoulos, Gregory Hamilton of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence A Dance Company in “Serving Nia.” Photograph by J Boogie Photography

The evening opened with “Serving Nia,” Brown’s 2001 follow-up to “Grace” (from 1999). Both works were originally choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who also fêted “Grace” in their recent City Center season. Though Evidence has been dancing “Grace” since 2001, this was the company premiere of “Serving Nia,” and it was dedicated to former Ailey dancer and artistic director Judith Jamison, who passed away in November. Clearly, there is a lot of overlap in these troupes, then and now. Brown originally set “Grace” on his own company and then taught it to the AADT dancers, and performers have moved freely between the companies over the years. This season ex-Ailey dancer Khalia Campbell (stunning) guested in both “Nia” and “Grace.”

Naturally, the Evidence dancers took to “Serving Nia” as if they were born doing it. From the beginning, the commanding Gregory Hamilton shone. He was especially wonderful in a slow solo movement, suavely toe-heeling and then heavily hammer-swinging in a diagonal shaft of light to mournful trumpet strains. As the music petered out, he did the opposite, determinedly speeding up his movements until the lights faded. But this blue period didn’t last long. The big finale, set to Dizzy Gillespie’s irreverent “Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac,” was a return to sunshine. Ball-change high kicks with low arms were borderline vaudevillian, and a great complement to carefree lyrics like “I got shoes, shoes, shoes.” The dancers shimmied their flexed wrists behind their torsos, giving the dance a euphoric, revivalist feel.

Shaylin Watson and dancers of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence in “Order My Steps.” Photograph by J Boogie Photography

“Order My Steps,” from 2005, went to the darker places, as Boseman recounted a story of addiction penned by his brother. He spoke over Terry Riley’s mewling strings: “I can fool myself into fooling myself,” and, “I know the way to trouble; I know the dance.” But the junkie’s tale ended happily; he learned to walk a clean lifestyle. “Steps” contained lots of light in other areas too, particularly in the extraordinarily musical dancing of Demetrius Burns. He sits so deep in the pocket of a note that it feels like he’s conducting it. Dancing to Bob Marley’s “War,” he performed funkified rabbit punches and squiggly hip moves, but his rootedness in the score made even simple steps, repeated to all four walls, compelling. He teamed up with Shayla Alayre Caldwell and Shaylin D. Watson in one section, a strong trio. Also uplifting was when Brown paired plucked guitar music with stompier vocabulary, so that the dancers’ foot-slaps contributed nicely to the staccato soundtrack. Some of the African chug steps looked like the “Swan Lake” corps’ Act II arabesque hops, and it was neat to see that phrase punched for amplified noise rather than decorously muffled.

At the end, the entire cast let loose to Marley’s “Exodus.” Caldwell demonstrated her power in a soaring leap, Stephanie Chronopoulos was mercurial in bursting lunges that pulled into compact passé hops, and Isaiah K. Harvey dazzled in a series of energetic solo turns. A highlight was an extended unison lineup of Hamilton, Chronopoulos, Harvey, and Austin Warren Coats. They performed Brown’s artfully woven mix of African, modern, contemporary, and balletic moves in lockstep. But though they were perfectly together, they were not robotic. Each dancer had their own distinct look and movement style, which is one of the joys of watching this company: they are all so unfailingly musical that their individual interpretations of the steps enhance the texture of the pieces instead of muddying them.

Gordon Chambers and Hannah Richardson in “Grace.” Photograph by J Boogie Photography

As in “Nia” and “Steps” and many of Brown’s pieces, “Grace” features unison groupwork with little breakaway solos, duos, trios, and quartets. But in “Grace” these subdivisions are narratively color-coded. The white and bright red costumes by Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya separate the angels from the wayward humans—who slowly lose their red shirts and sport all white too by the end of the piece. Caldwell, in the central Woman/God (or Mother God) role, was fantastic. She presided over the sinners’ conversions with a fiery gaze. Before the final processional in “Grace,” Caldwell’s Mother God was feistily confronted by Hamilton. It was a charged moment, as the rest of the cast watched her calm him down and then hug him. It was also choreographically shocking, because it was a pas de deux of sorts, and one of the evening’s few moments of human touch. It made me realize how self-contained and autonomous Brown’s dances are in general. The dancers’ bodies are very much their own, and they communicate foremost through their intimate partnership with the music—which is why they are all so vividly unique and yet so unified.

While watching Lloyd Knight earlier this week, I was thinking about how Martha Graham’s vocabulary often looks like a body fighting an invisible opponent—the contracted blows, the proud jabs. Ballet too involves a constant battling of oppositional forces, as the legs turn out in different directions to summon energy to move from stationary positions (as in a pirouette from fifth position, for example). But the African style is largely about going with the flow. Sometimes the movements are initiated from the outside and work inward as the spine wiggles, the shoulders roll, and the hips sway in adjustment. Sometimes the movements stem from within and kick explosively outward, while the head tosses back and the limbs fling out to absorb the shockwaves. Unlike in Graham, a lower back contraction is almost always countered with a swing through to an extension, back and forth again and again—a rocking pelvic pendulum. Caldwell’s Woman/God did not need to resort to violence to lead her flock. The path to heaven was rhythmic; they only needed to get in her groove.

Faye Arthurs

Faye Arthurs is a former ballet dancer with New York City Ballet. She chronicled her time as a professional dancer in her blog Thoughts from the Paint. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Fordham University. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their sons.

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