Ronald Brown
Brooklyn, NY
Ronald Brown founded Evidence Dance Company in 1985, and the company has been presented extensively in the United States and internationally, including engagements at the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., Aaron Davis Hall, The Walker Art Center, and the Colorado Dance Festival. Brown has also been commissioned to create works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and Philadanco. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Def Dance Jam Workshop Award as Mentor of the Year, a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.
Walking Out the Dark
Ronald Brown
Artist BioWalking Out the Dark‘s central metaphor is a spiritual awakening that occurs after a period of contemplative isolation. Created for Ronald Brown’s Evidence Dance Company, the piece is performed in three sections: the first culminates with a shower of soil from above, symbolizing burial; the second and third sections are danced on the earth that remains onstage. The movement vocabulary is drawn largely from the dance and music of the Gullah culture of the United States, Cuba, and Guinea, West Africa. Walking Out the Dark features an original vocal score by Philip Hamilton, and additional music by Sweet Honey in the Rock, M’Bemb Bagoura, and Ensemble Cutumba Ballet Folklorico de Santiago from Cuba.