Camille A. Brown's superheroes write their names in "ink"

Maleek Washington and Timothy Edwards
performing ink by Camille A. Brown
(photos: Christopher Dugan)

ink
Camille A. Brown & Dancers
The Joyce Theater
February 5-10

Do not trifle with Camille A. Brown. The woman knows her mind, and her secure creative imprint has been felt, now, not only on dance stages but on television and Broadway. Ask her a question--as folks did during her audience dialogue at The Joyce's opening night for ink--and, without any hesitation, you get Direct Camille. Her movement might appear, to some, a chain of several interlocking dance genres, but it is not thoughtlessly or simplistically so. Nor can we shove it under a safe, defining label. What to call what she crafts in her work? "It's me," Brown says.

ink exemplifies that. For about 75 uninterrupted minutes, it energizes the Joyce stage under two weathered-looking billboards of collaged images designed by David L. Arsenault. There's the startling thwack of percussion that opens the evening, and a typically atypical solo for Brown whose raptor-like power, adept control of physical isolations and ability to adapt her shape to handle any environment or condition are markers for the intricacies of Black intelligence and creativity, skills for surviving and thriving under duress.

Above: Camille A. Brown's opening solo
Below: Catherine Foster
(photos: Christopher Duggan)

And then comes the spill of movement from her six dancer/collaborators, accented with gestures that have come to bear private meaning, a language accumulating maturity from one dance to the next. It is this precious, complex language, she might say, that gives her people--my people--a fighting chance to stay alive. With movement drawn from the Black diaspora--traditional, contemporary and invented--this artist clears room to write her manifesto across the air, rewriting the lies of so-called history, the stereotypes and limitations thrown on Black bodies and Black culture. Following the previous works of Brown's trilogy--Bessie-winning Mr. TOL E. RAncE and the Bessie-nominated BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play--ink uses solos and duets to expand the way we think about Black possibility, especially as it relates to gender and how people exist with one another.

Juel D. Lane (left) with Beatrice Capote in ink
(photo: Christopher Duggan)

With no boxes around the way souls and bodies are "supposed" to behave and respond to life, there is freedom, and there is caring where division, competition and violence might have been expected. The trilogy ends with an embodied wish for our future, a lesson in what we will need to get there.

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Director/Choreographer: Camille A. Brown in collaboration with the dancers

Dancers: Beatrice Capote, Timothy Edwards, Catherine Foster, Juel D. Lane, Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Maleek Washington and Camille A. Brown

Music Director: Allison Miller

Musicians: Juliette Jones, Allison Miller, Scott Patterson, Wilson R. Torres

Dramaturgs: Daniel Banks, Kamilah Forbes, Talvin Wilks

Lighting and Scenic Design: David L. Arsenault

Sound Design: Justin Ellington

Costume Designer: Mayte Natalio

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ink continues at The Joyce through Sunday, February 10. Hurry and click for schedule information and tickets!

MAP/DIRECTIONS

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Of dance and men...at Dixon Place

Jonathan Royce Windham's
Creatures of Habit
(photo: Nir Arieli)

It's a sorry start to the weekend. All grey out there. So, if you need some zest and some fun, make dance your ticket tonight.

I recommend Creatures of Habit, a program featuring the clever work of that title, choreographed by Jonathan Royse Windham, and a couple of energetic works-in-progress showcased by boomerang and Danté Brown/Warehouse Dance. About 90 minutes, all men dancing all the time.

Why do you want to see that?

Well, in each of these pieces--finished or not, and it's hard to believe there's much more work to be done on those two unfinished ones--these guys go all out. I mean, really all out, whether it is nonstop physical exertion and risk--as in Kora Radella duet, For the Toward, for boomerang's Will Arbery and Matty Davis--or the extremes of comic absurdity in Windham's rambunctious ensemble or the exuberant bromance of three frat brothers so well depicted in Danté Brown's Package by Brown, Michael Abbatiello and the radiant Chafin Seymour.

Choreographer Danté Brown
(photo: Naré Ghazarian)

Each choreographer works with this full-out male energy, in different ways, to challenge and complicate our surface understanding of masculinity and, in the case of Windham with his seven over-the-top archetypes, to wickedly satirize how male performers behave around each other. Windham pushes things about as far as they can go--and sometimes too often or over too long a stretch--but his performers are great at morphing into and sustaining their physical/ psychological roles. Radella draws an erotic and sometimes surprisingly tender intimacy from the connection between her two dancers, all the while threatening them, life and limb, with the heavy metal props they toy with and maneuver quite recklessly.

Tonight's program at 7:30 repeats last night's opener with the three aforementioned companies. See below for programming details for the two upcoming weekends of works.

Creatures of Habit, along with two works in progress*, will run on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm. Remaining shows are on October 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18.

*Schedule of companies and choreographers showing works-in-progress:

October 4: boomerang and Danté B/Warehouse Dance
October 10 and 11: Ephrat Asherie and LAVA
October 17 and 18:  Christopher Ralph and Raja Feather Kelly

Get tickets here.

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)