Malpaso Dance Company performing Azure Barton’s “Stillness in Bloom.”
Ronald K. Brown Evidence
Dorrance Dance
Spring Dance Fest features stellar dance companies
Global Arts Live has turned its Winter Dance Fest into a Spring Dance Fest, recasting a January trio of stellar dance performances cancelled due to the pandemic into a three-evening series that runs from June 2 through June 5 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre.
The first of these eagerly awaited shows features contemporary tap ensemble Dorrance Dance. On June 2, Michelle Dorrance, a 2015 MacArthur Fellow, and her sensational company will perform the Boston premiere of their new evening-length work, “SOUNDspace,” an exploration of movement as music.
Next, on June 4, comes choreographer and dancer Ronald K. Brown and his company Evidence. Founded in 1985 by Brown when he was 19, Evidence performs works that plumb the spirit with a storytelling style that mingles African, Caribbean and American dance club moves.
Evidence will present the Boston premiere of Brown’s “The Equality of Night and Day,” a work co-commissioned by Global Arts Live. Its soundtrack combines original music by jazz pianist Jason Moran and narration by activist and educator Angela Davis. This work completes a trilogy that includes “Mercy” (2019) and “Grace” (1999), which Brown choreographed for the Alvin Ailey Company and later added to the Evidence repertory.
The
program includes the Boston premiere of “Mercy,” a collaboration with
composer Meshell Ndegeocello; and “Come Ye” (2002), a multimedia work
inspired by the legacies of Nina Simone and Fela Kuti. Dancing in all
three works is Demetrius Burns, Boston Arts Academy ’12 and Boston
Conservatory ’16.
Concluding
the series on June 5 is Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company. This Boston
visit, its first since 2016, was originally planned for March 2020. But
just as the dancers arrived from Cuba for three sold-out shows, Global
Arts Live had to cancel all bookings due to the pandemic. The company
was then scheduled to kick off the Winter series.
The
Malpaso dancers will perform “Lullaby for Insomnia” by company
cofounder Dailedys Carrazana, a solo to a song by iconic Cuban
singer-pianist Bola de Nieve; and an extended version of “woman with
water,” by Swedish choreographer Mats Ek. Its program also features
“Stillness in Bloom” (2021) by Aszure Barton, an examination of
isolation and longed-for reunions; and “Tabula Rasa” (1986), by Israeli
choreographer Ohad Naharin.
Resilience
is built into the DNA of dancers, who during the pandemic continue to
deliver astounding performances, despite cancellations and occasional
positive tests among company members that prompt agile shifts in
programming. One recent example of this was the April return of Kyle
Abraham and his company A.I.M. to the Institute of Contemporary Art/
Boston. Due to a dancer’s illness, one of the evening’s two works was
replaced by an onstage Q&A with Abraham.
Dance
as a live art form embodies moment-to-moment risk and vulnerability.
Afflicted by a stroke in April 2021, Ronald K. Brown has kept a full
season of bookings while progressing well in his recovery, guided by the
same fortitude and faith with which he nurtures his company. Reflecting
on their endeavors in his blog in June 2020, Brown wrote, “Our
destination in the midst of unrest is truth, peace, and solidarity.
Focus on what is right, continue to do the work, and keep love and truth
at the front.”
ON THE WEB
For more information, visit www.globalartslive.org/springdancefest