I Can’t Sit Down! (Ron K. Brown Workshop at Harvard)

The evocative, exciting, expressive dances in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess is the work of the incredible Ron K. Brown, leading American choreographer and Artistic Director of Evidence, A Dance Company.  Ron was cool enough to host a two-hour workshop on the movement of Catfish Row, with one stipulation:  everyone that walked in the door had to dance.  And we danced. Oh yes, we danced.

The dances that Ron introduced to the world of Porgy and Bess are drawn from spiritual dances around the world– from Afro-Caribbean funeral dances, to Arara dances of the Dahomey people (a lot of these religious dances evoke the movement of farmers, who are most connected to the earth and to life), to West African Pentecostal dance, to “ring shouts” in contemporary South Carolina. The effect of this kind of physical mash-up of dance styles is one of panglobal spirituality, an embodiment of the passion, grief and tribulation of a far-flung diaspora.

Ron’s work onstage in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and his generosity as a teacher of dance, reflect his philosophy of the art.  He told us after the class that he formed Evidence because he was interested in seeing “real people dancing;” he wanted to create dance that told personal stories through movement, that revealed evidence of the dancer’s identity, his spirit, his emotional life.

Beyond all that, Ron’s dance is fun to watch…and even more fun to learn. Thanks, Ron, for taking the time to teach this workshop.  Enjoy the video!