CLASS DESCRIPTION

WORKSHOP & CLASS DESCRIPTION

A core part of the EVIDENCE mission is to bring community engagement and cultural connections to every region it visits. Through these programs, Evidence’s goal is to increase access to arts education, to teach children and adults about cultural heritage and tradition, and to support practitioners of dance through training and mentorship.

Outreach can include traditional dance activities or may be centered on current works in the Evidence repertory. Examples include Brown’s “Legacy of Expression” program, which includes movement, text and photography workshops are based on the 2007 multimedia dance work One Shot. Brown’s all-male workshops centered on the work Two-Year Old Gentlemen, a dance that explores relationships between men and his Gatekeeprs Community class integrates youth children and elders to share stories and dance.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE CLASS

Master Classes are designed for intergenerational participants with a wide range to no dance experience. Classes begin center floor with and emphasis on alignment, rhythm and using the body to express ideas and themes; strength, prayer, and celebration.

Classes for beginning/intermediate/advanced dancers begin with meditation and floor work that includes stretching and mind body centering exercises.

Center floor work or barre work includes alignment and the introduction of the various dance techniques that are incorporated in the vocabulary of Ronald K. Brown/ EVIDENCE, A Dance Company.

Phrases across the floor use influences from the western modern dance as well as traditional and social dances from West Africa, the Caribbean

and the US

Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Los Angelas, CA

GATEKEEPERS COMMUNITY CLASS

This inter-generational workshop brings together parents, grandparents, Guardians and yoyth to share stories. After a basic warm-up and community building excercise, the participants are given their first assignment. The children tell the adults their favorite story and the adult write it down, the adult/senior tells the child something that they need/want them to know and the child writes it down. The group then convenes in a circle to hear the next assignment: Act out their own story. The participants then share the story through movement, the third time with music that has been selected to assist in deepening the investment in the story. The group that is viewing is asked “what did you see?”. The participant has the option to tell the story while they are moving, have some read the story while they act it out, or to simply share the story with us.

This workshop was designed out of the ideas supported by the dance piece Gatekeepers. In some Native American and West African Cultures, a child is given the name of an elder or ancestor so they understand their connection to the heaven and earth. Sharing the same name also encourages a sense of lineage, responsibility and caretaking. This workshop provides a space to reinforce these ideas.

Mays Magnet School, South Miami Dade, FL

REPERTORY WORKSHOP

This workshop taught by Ronald K. Brown and/or Associate Artistic Director Arcell Cabuag gives young dancers and pre professional students the opportunity to learn Ronald K. Brown EVIDENCE, A Dance Company repertory. Students will start with a technique class where they will stretch, warmup and learn the fundamentals of the EVIDENCE esthetic and movement vocabulary.

The directors will decide and teach an excerpt from its' reptory that is condusive for the class level.

This class can be conducted during a two to three week process. Depending on the institution, it can also be followed by in informal showing.

Mark Morris DanceCenter Brooklyn, NY

TEXT & MOVEMENT CLASS

This workshop has been conducted for all ages. Actors, Performing

Artists, teachers and non-dancers have participated in this workshop.

The class begins with basic community building exercise and a simple warm up that brings the group into a circle.

The participants are paired up and go aside to tell each other stories. They write the stories/documenting the other person’s story. The next stage is each person ”acting out their story” without words. These studies are shared one at a time and the class, and the viewers tell,“What they see”. Music is added to assist in bringing the study to a deeper understanding. Finally the student either reads the story, or shows us the story and tells us.

This assignment allows us to talk about body language, intention in

creating and performing work.

Houston Row House Project

CHOREOGRAPHY LAB

In the Chore-Lab participants will learn tools to employ in the development of choreography. Including; Improvisation with their dancers, partnering, creating companion phrases, how to use space, music and text.

Participants warm up together, are given a practical experience that demonstrates the assignment for the day. Each individual is given time to work on the assignment that employs the specific tool. The group reconvenes to discuss how effective the attempt was and each participant is able to respond to the feedback. This workshop is for first time dance makers, emerging choreographers as well as choreographers who want to gain additional ways of working.

National Choreogrhy Intensive. Utah

TWO YEAR OLD GENTLEMEN WORKSHOP

This workshop is for fathers & sons, or mentors and mentees.

The group warms-up together and sit in a circle to discuss their concerns. Similar to the Text & Movement Workshops the participants pair up to exchange stories that are then acted out. This workshop was designed to support the ideas that are at the core of the dance piece “Two-Year Old Gentlemen”. The bond between boys and men in their development is very important as we look to create a space where role models can guide and support the endeavors of the youth who are the leaders of tomorrow.

Hayground School, Bridgehampton, NY

LEGACY & EXPRESSION WORKSHOP

Utilizing the basic tenets of his wildly popular text and movement workshop

Ronald K. Brown and\or members of Evidence work with participants of any age using photographs and the content suggested in them, such as like legacy, community, family, identity, and the emotions expressed by those idea.

The workshop can be done using photographs that the participants have taken themselves around a theme or if the presenters is hosting the Charles "Teenie" Harris: Rhapsody in Black and White exhibit those photographs can also be utilized.

This workshop helps tie together and reveal the influence that "Teenie's"

photography has on Ron's creation of the dance work - how one legacy of

expression influences another. Taking “static" captured moment in time and creating a movement sequence that strives to reveal the history, legacy, dignity and vitality of that photograph or the ideas or feeling in it is the challenge participants will come to appreciate in this workshop.

After creating and sharing their own movement expression the participants candiscuss what was captured and how the photographs relate to and reveal the story or idea that is being told.

It is our hope that the information captured in the workshop leads to a deeper understanding and meaning to the participants of family and community and legacy that is captured in the photographs of "Teenie Harris" and the dances of Ronald K. Brown.

Houston Row House Project

Jacob's Pillow Repertory Class

EVIDENCE offers the following activities:

• master classes for students or professionals

• workshops for non-dancers (of all ages and skill level)

• intergenerational workshops and sessions for families

• classroom lectures and discussions

• lecture demonstrations for participants of all ages

• choreography labs

• open rehearsals

• pre- and post-show discussions

• teaching repertory to local dancers (multiple sessions required)

Specific programs can also be developed depending on need.Contact the EVIDENCE office for more information about these exciting programs or email info@evidencedance.com.