DCDC and Evidence at ADF

Last week, two companies, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and Ronald K. Brown's Evidence dance company, shared a program at ADF. Both are rooted in the African American and African-diasporic experience, both celebrate history and tradition, even while they are working primarily in the realm of contemporary dance. Both sets of dancers are clearly highly trained, and can capture both large, whole-body movements and more subtle details. Aesthetically, however, they are quite different. At least in the particular dances I saw, the DCDC dancers had a more classical attack of the movement, a muscle-bound groundedness and simultaneous lift. The Evidence cast, on the other hand, performed with a sort of studied casualness, an easy bounce and sink. They often seemed to be jamming to the music rather than performing with intention.

Although I hadn't seen either company live, and had only seen excerpts of recorded works, I'd heard a great deal about Evidence--all glowing reviews. I was surprised, then, to be rather disappointed with the work they presented.

Here's an excerpt from my review:

The American Dance Festival's season theme, Something New, Something Treasured, was clearly captured by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) and Ronald K. Brown's company Evidence in a shared program at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Each company presented two works, a mix of classic and newer works, all performed with fervor and dedication. The physicality of the body was front and center, prompting me to think about how meaning is embedded in the body itself; how the body is held and used and trained, how it speaks of dance's history, and its own, and points to its future.

DCDC opened the program with Donald McKayle's classic "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" (1959), which depicts the harsh life of working on a chain gang. Set to a collection of traditional chain gang songs, the dance is tightly structured, and follows both the rhythm and emotional content of the music. Muscles tense and bound, the six men move together crisply. Their bodies are sledgehammers, powerful and weighted; swung away, but brought down with sharp control and precision. In their exhaustion, a vision of a woman appears to them, alternately a flirtatious sweetheart, a worried mother, and a caring wife. The dancers communicate their passion, anger, perseverance, and despair with a larger-than-life expressivity, leaving no room for ambiguity.

For more about DCDC and Evidence, read the full review here.

My last official review of the season is coming soon, as I review Rosie Herrera, one of my recent favorites. I hope to get to a few of the ADF shows in July, and will post reviews here if I do.