COURTESY OF UH / TIM BOSTOCK PRODUCTIONS Ronald K. Brown brings his dance company to Hawaii Theatre for two shows this weekend.

African dance
meets ballet

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Choreographer Ronald K. Brown is African American and includes African music and movement in his work, so it seems inevitable that what he does is often described as "black" dance -- never mind that he also draws on traditional European dance such as ballet in creating his visual essays on human emotions.

"I wouldn't call it 'black dance,' but I understand why people would," Brown said during a recent phone interview. "Some people see it and they think it's new, or connect it to hip-hop or club dance -- something that's rooted to the earth, something where the musicality is a very important part. All of those things -- when you add them up inside of how we see race -- that's why people call it 'black dance.' I'm OK with that title but I wouldn't call it that."

Brown and his company open a two-night stint at the Hawaii Theatre tomorrow and will be presenting three of Brown's current multimedia pieces on the human experience, regardless of our color.

"What we try to do is show a relationship between dance and music forms around the world," Brown said of his approach in utilizing ballet movements and modern American dance along with traditional West African styles.

For instance, "Upside Down" incorporates dance from Senegal, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, with music from Mali and Nigeria, to address the universally shared experiences of stress and confusion. In "Ebony Magazine," he uses choreographed group movement to suggest the harmony and spiritual growth that comes when one learns to look beyond superficial concerns about being physically beautiful.

"There's a way of being superficial and a way of being what I call very 'presentational.' The piece starts off being very self-conscious, the way models might carry themselves. By the end of the piece, we bring the focus back inside this collective and reinforce the idea that it's more about us and how we're connected to each other, and how we have to watch out being superficial by the way we carry ourselves."

The audience will also see one of Brown's most personal dances, "Walking Out the Dark," which he created in response to his mother's death in 1996.

"You know that space you feel when that person is really gone, or wanting to be there for someone but not being able to, and not knowing why you can't be there because you're too busy or preoccupied with something else?

"But they need you, so they get angry with you, and then you need the forgiveness, but you're angry because they're angry ... it's the whole being-out-of-sync-with-each-other."

Brown describes the piece as "danced conversations" in which the dancers perform in pairs expressing feelings of anger or a desire for forgiveness. Eventually, he says, they reach "the unconditional, peaceful bliss ... and when we get to that, that's when we can come into the light.

"There are so many trials we have to go through before you feel you have a sense of clarity. In the West we don't really have formal initiation ceremonies where 'now you're becoming a man' -- instead, you just end up going through these trials in your life, and you have to add it up for yourself."

DANCE HAS been Brown's spiritual touchstone for as long as he can remember. His earliest performances were presented at home ("I moved the furniture around and put on shows in the house"), but it wasn't until he was in his midteens that he "felt that I had the courage to say 'I want to dance.'"

Brown came into his own as a dancer and choreographer when he presented "Evidence" in 1985, but didn't begin touring extensively until about four years ago.

"It was just the love of dancing and the love of creating work that had my attention at first. It was almost like I didn't want to have a company, even though I had a group of dancers. But many of my colleagues said, 'You don't really want to have a company. You seem too satisfied just to make dances.' They were trying to encourage me to take part in the business side, the schmoozing part ... trying to get the work out there, and here I was really satisfied with creating the work and putting it up in New York.

So what changed his mind about having a touring company?

"I believe in this idea of creating contemporary dance that tells stories and shares an uplifting experience with people. That is really, really important to me, and I have a group of dancers who feel it's important to them as well. We couldn't just create it and show it just to family and friends at home ... and touring was an investment I made for the dancers who work very, very hard for me."

And as for the work he's created over the years, Brown says that the themes have remained constant, but his "movement vocabulary" continues to grow.

"Every time I encounter another vocabulary, it influences what I do. You'll see influences from Cuba, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Brazil and my training in modern dance, and it's all mixed together. My style is a fusion of all that, but you'll be able to pick out all the dance forms, and then you'll also see the traditional dance in a pure form."

Dance concert Featuring Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE. Presented by the University of Hawaii and Tim Bostock Productions. Where: Hawaii Theatre When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and 2 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $10 to $27 Call: 528-0506

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