{"id":6104,"date":"2019-02-10T16:48:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T21:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=6104"},"modified":"2019-02-12T10:01:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:01:37","slug":"dancing-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2019\/02\/dancing-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Maleek Washington (L) and Timothy Edwards in Camille A. Brown’s ink<\/em>. Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t the usual impersonal voice reminding those of us\nsitting in the Joyce Theater to please turn off our cellphones, Instead, we who\nwere waiting to see Camille A. Brown and Dancers perform her ink<\/em> heard a muted, but excited babble\nand a voice that I took to be Brown\u2019s delivering the requisite warning. It also\nmight have been an invitation to see the performers as a tribe and, as much as\npossible, to become part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has done extensive reading and thinking about history\nand present reality, and no fewer than three dramaturges (Daniel Banks, Kamilah\nForbes, and Talvin Wilkes) have been involved in the production. The program\nnotes are thorough. In them, the choreographer cites the influence of two\nalbums: Lauryn Hill\u2019s Miseducation of\nLauryn Hill <\/em>and Like Water for\nChocolate <\/em>by Common. She wanted her dance language to have their \u201craw\nauthenticity and vulnerability.\u201d A quotation that she offers as a crucial\nfoundation of ink <\/em>comes from a book\n(a collection titled Question Bridge:\nBlack Males in America<\/em>):  \u201cI see\nblack people as superheroes because we keep rising.\u201d The dance\u2019s six sections\nhave to do with survival and all that the word can encompass: strength,\npersistence, brotherhood, sisterhood, support, courage, love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ink <\/em>(2017)is the third and final installment of a\ntrilogy that began with Mr. TOL E. RAncE <\/em>(2012)\nand BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play <\/em>(2015).\nThe first dealt with elements of minstrelsy and \nmore contemporary manifestations of racial prejudice and assigned roles;\nthe second examined the games that schoolgirls play and the cultural roots of\nthese. In all three, we see elements of African dance and African American\nvariants of these. Brown evokes not only steps that could be seen on the\nvaudeville circuit and in Harlem ballrooms, but those practiced earlier when\nplantation slaves were denied drums but not forbidden to stamp and clap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The musicians are onstage throughout the performance: Scott Patterson at the piano; Wilson R. Torres on drums; Allison Miller, percussion (and music director); and Juliette Jones, violin. They sit beneath two huge screens painted by lighting and scene designer David L. Arsenault that feature the faces of black men and women rising from a mottled surface. Occasionally the seven terrific dancers eye them. They may also gaze skyward or take a good, long look at us. These are their names: Beatrice Capote, Timothy Edwards, Catherine Foster, Juel D. Lane, Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Maleek Washington, and Brown herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Camille A. Brown in her ink.  <\/em>Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The choreographer begins sitting on a box. In \u201cCulture Codes,\u201d we\u2019re told, she is invoking Elegba, a Yoruba deity associated with opening avenues of communication and clearing spaces. We don\u2019t \u201csee\u201d this in any literal way, of course. To the sounds of drumming, Brown performs a repeatable phrase that involves precise gestures; you imagine her gathering, reaping, rolling something up, stretching it out, turning small wheels. Her hands flutter, even shimmer. A lifetime codified. When she stands, the piano takes over. Now we see how fast her feet can move, keeping her low to the ground, anchoring her to a spot in space. She salutes the paintings before she goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maleek Washington and Yusha-Marie Sorzano in Camille Brown’s ink. <\/em>Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sorzano and Washington enter for \u201cBalance,\u201d and that\u2019s what they achieve. They know each other\u2019s bodies\u2014can step out in unison or dance comfortably alone together. They face each other and \u201cargue\u201d in fits and starts; they hold right hands and figure out complications without letting go. Their hips and shoulders are mobile, sensual. In this loving partnership, they can stop dancing for a few seconds and brush each other off or fix each other up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Catherine Foster and musicians in ink<\/em>. Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

All the musicians are playing when Catherine Foster enters, wearing a draped skirt. She\u2019s a rhythmic marvel, a champion of beauty. Unselfconsciously, she devotes herself to working up a pattern of stepping, turning, twisting her knees in what could be a frenzy were she not so in control of her wildness. (It\u2019s a dance that Brown titled \u201cMilkshake\u201d and has characterized as \u201cpattin Juba\u201d meeting \u201cGo Go.\u201d) By the time Foster is finishing, only pianist-composer Patterson is still playing\u2014slowly, sweetly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maleek Washington (L) and Timothy Edwards in Camille Brown’s ink.  <\/em>Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Washington enters the arena as if to establish ownership of it\u2014 jumping high, pulling himself up by the neck of his shirt. When Edwards enters wearing shorts and a red cap, the section\u2019s title, \u201cTurf\u201d becomes clear. But this is no clich\u00e9d battle; it\u2019s a compendium of what it may mean to grow up as \u201cBlack Men in America.\u201d They back into each other as if by accident, suit up with invisible clothing (armor ?), look up in delight, sit and chat busily and silently, throw dice, dance in emphatic unison. They stare briefly at us. They also get out of breath, pat their hearts and their balls. They dance big, but also fall as if hit. Edwards digs at the ground. Someone\u2019s grave? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Duel J. Lane and Beatrice Caputo in ink. <\/em>Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In comes Lane. He\u2019s wearing a red jacket and sneakers.  Capote is ready to follow him around. \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d one of them seems to say. (Violinist Jones has emerged from her place with the other magicians and is following the both.) He\u2019s an athlete, can fall into a split. But when he bends way over, she puts a hand on his back and walks him along. They run in a circle together. She dances at him; then he holds her by the head\u2014not brutally, more as if tending her, steering her. By now, they\u2019ve removed parts of their outerwear. Maybe that\u2019s why the section is called \u201cShedding,\u201d but what they\u2019ve dispensed with may be more significant than jackets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(L to R): Duel J. Lane, Timothy Edwards, Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Camille A. Brown, Maleek Washington, Juliette Jones, Catherine Foster. Photo:
Christopher Duggan
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Finally the stage begins to bustle with activity, with\npossible violence. Everyone\u2019s onstage. They fall, they jump and jump, until\nsomeone says \u201cstop!\u201d  The section is\ncalled \u201cMigration,\u201d but these people don\u2019t seem to be travelling to a new land.\nInstead, they\u2019re excitedly working their bodies\u2014rapidly and efficiently or\nsinuously and slowly. What they know of dances from the African American past\nhas migrated into the present inventive choreography, and these together indeed\nacknowledge them as \u201csuperheroes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterward comes \u201cThe Dialogue.\u201d We spectators stop cheering,\nsit back down and ask questions of Edwards and Washington and, eventually, of\nBrown and the others. Barely an hour has gone by, but a lot has happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t the usual impersonal voice reminding those of us sitting in the Joyce Theater to please turn off our cellphones, Instead, we who were waiting to see Camille A. Brown and Dancers perform her ink heard a muted, but excited babble and a voice that I took to be Brown\u2019s delivering the requisite warning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3123,1717,1712,1718,3122,3121,3125,912,1713,3120,3124,1715],"class_list":{"0":"post-6104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-allison-miller","9":"tag-beatrice-capote","10":"tag-camille-a-brown","11":"tag-catherine-foster","12":"tag-david-l-arsenault","13":"tag-juel-d-lane","14":"tag-juliette-jones","15":"tag-maleek-washington","16":"tag-scott-patterson","17":"tag-timothy-edwards","18":"tag-wilson-r-torres","19":"tag-yusha-marie-sorzano","20":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6104"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6203,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions\/6203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}