Ronald K. Brown Concert

(Robert) Masseo Davis

Ronald K. Brown Concert

On April 12th 2008 the Ronald K. Brown dance company Evidence Dance, came to the Fine Arts Center on the University of Massachusetts, Amherst campus. It was a highly anticipated evening that was meant to inspire. In the beginning there is always a sense of anticipation, when entering a concert hall such as the fine arts center. The body of viewers at the evenings concert was composed primarily of the well dressed seemingly distinguished, myself included.
The evening ultimately was an art event, truly a demonstration of dance as art. It was not a showcase of technique/ training, nor a circus with nothing but tricks. To be frank dance is an art medium that should be considered high art because it has the potential to tell stories, and at times it is just beautiful to see bodies in motion. In regards to the performance given by EVIIDENCE A DANCE COMPANY, the evening illustrated the latter.
As a performer of the Ronald K. Brown reparatory myself, to see the company of dancers who he himself has chosen to represent his work, perform was delightful. Over the course of the evening one of the bodies of work that the company performed was ORDER MY STEPS. Within the dance there is a section performed to Bob Marley’s, Exodus. It was eye opening to be sitting and watching the company perform the reparatory that I myself had once performed. I found myself at times following along, with the choreography in my seat. Their interpretation was different than ours, calmer. I feel that may have to do with the fact they are older, not that they don’t have the potential to turn up the volume on the choreography, but that they didn’t fall into the trap of turning up the volume because the audience wanted to see that. (as they would have if they where a circus)
The overall feel of the performance was exactly as I expected, powerful without being overbearing or preachy. The one problem with the evening was that given even before the show had started. The anticipation of the show gave the impression that the performance was going to be of nothing but high energy movement, that probably has something to do with the audience previous knowledge that the choreography was composed primarily of traditional/ ethic movement.