Ordway

POST-SHOW PARTY

Join Ordway staff and company members from the World Music and Dance performances for a reception in the Marzitelli Foyer following their performances. Food and drinks are available for purchase.

MASTER CLASS

Ronald K. Brown Contemporary Master Class
Tuesday, January 17
6 – 7:30pm
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Drake Room
345 Washington Street,
Downtown St. Paul 55102
Please enter through the Stage Door on 5th Street
Attendance is $10 or FREE with a ticket to the Ronald K. Brown Evidence public performance on Sun, Jan 15
Please RSVP to Amy Miller at (651)282-3017 or amiller@ordway.org

Class begins with meditation and floor work that includes stretching and mind body centering exercises. Phrases across the floor use influences from western modern dance as well as traditional and social dances from West Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S.

Ronald K. Brown has been making dances since the second grade. Growing up in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, he took classes in the Police Athletic League Dance Program and performed in his high school’s musicals. He studied extensively with Mary Anthony, whose technique includes a combination of Martha Graham and Hanya Holm. Brown’s first performance was held at Anthony’s studio, financed by three family members each donating $200 for staging and costumes. Early on he performed with Jennifer Muller/The Works, who along with Bebe Miller and Maguy Marin were hugely influential to his work.

Brown’s dances derive from his interpretation of the human condition and refer to numerous cultural sources. These sources include history, traditions, and dance forms from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, combined with kinetic storytelling, modern and urban dance movement. Through dance Brown explores the history of blacks in America and passes on African culture to a new generation. His stories and movement express traditional themes of community, ritual, and collective experience. He wants audiences to see commonplace subjects in new ways, to open their minds to new experiences, and to foster tolerance and spiritual growth. In Brown’s words, he wants his work to represent “all the information that has gone into us – the stories, the history. It is really the human experience.”