Photos by Julietta Cervantes CAP UCLA Presents Ronald K. Brown/ EVIDENCE Grace@20 Thu, Nov 12 - 14, 2020 Prerecorded at Bard College, NY ART MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER WELCOME TO UCLA’S CENTER FOR THE ART OF PERFORMANCE UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) is the public facing research and presenting organization for the performing arts at the University of California, Los Angeles—one of the world’s leading public research universities. We are housed within the UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture along with the Hammer and Fowler museums. The central pursuit of our work as an organization is to sustain the diversity of contemporary performing artists while celebrating their contributions to culture. We acknowledge, amplify and support artists through major presentations, commissions and creative development initiatives. Our programs offer audiences a direct connection to the ideas, perspectives and concerns of living artists. Through the lens of dance, theater, music, literary arts, digital media arts and collaborative disciplines, informed by diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, artists and audiences come together in our theaters and public spaces to explore new ways of seeing that expands our understanding of the world we live in now. cap.ucla.edu #CAPUCLA Photos by Julietta Cervantes CAP UCLA Presents Ronald K. Brown/ EVIDENCE Grace@20 Thu, Nov 12 at 7PM PST | GRACE; Online Screening and Post show discussion Prerecorded at Bard College, NY Approximate run time: 60 minutes, no intermission Fri, Nov 13 at 3PM PST | Virtual Community Class Approximate run time: 90 minutes Sat, Nov 14 at 3PM PST | Let’s Say Grace and Talk About It After! Approximate run time: 60 minutes Funds provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Endowment Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant Endowment. MESSAGE FROM THE ARTIST “Grace,” the dance was commissioned and performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and premiered in 1999 at NY City Center. The work became a part of the Evidence, A Dance Company Repertory in 2001. The Grace@20 Workshop gives participants a chance to view the work, learn some of the movement from the piece and have a conversation to learn how each of us thinks of grace in our lives and work. When Judith Jamison, former Artistic Director of AADT, contacted me to discuss the possibility of me creating a work on Ailey there were several immediate responses. One was the memory of going on a school trip to see the Ailey Company when I was in the 2nd grade and going home and making a dance. I also remembered my mother taking me to a dance studio at Bedford-Stuyvesant Corporation in Brooklyn, NY after that trip and I recall my 8-year-old self telling my mom “there are 80 girls.” There weren’t but as the only guy I felt that way and did not think dance was an option for me until I began studying seriously at 16. I founded Evidence in 1985 and believed that I needed to make space for Evidence, the kind of work that I believed was my purpose to create. After speaking to Ms. Jamison, my heart was full and I wondered how do I say thank you to Mr. Ailey, a choreographer and legend who inspired my first work when I was a child and who let me know, through his work and example, that it was possible and necessary to have a dance company that reflected the human condition. I knew that Mr. Ailey was fond of Duke Ellington, so I turned to Ellington’s Sacred Concerts and discovered over a hundred versions of Come Sunday, a song that became the opening and closing of Grace. During the Grace@20 Workshop participants will learn about the other music that is in “Grace” and the reasons for their inclusion in the piece. For the 20th Anniversary of “Grace,” Evidence performed the work for the first time with live music and an expanded cast at Bard College in July 2019. I look forward to the screening of “Grace,” the movement classes and the conversation, especially during these current times when so many of us are in search of grace. ~ Ronald K. Brown ABOUT THE COMPANY Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 7PM PST | Online Screening of GRACE Video by Nel Shelby Productions, courtesy of the Fisher Center at Bard Following the stream will be a live discussion with choreographer Ronald K. Brown and Barry Brannum. Choreography: Ronald K. Brown Original Lighting for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: William H. Grant Original Lighting for EVIDENCE: Brenda Gray Lighting Re-creation & Technical Director: Tsubasa Kamei Costumes: Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya Music Supervision: Peven Everett Sound Design and Engineering: Dave Wegner Dancers: Michael Battle, Arcell Cabuag, Stephanie Chronopoulos, Joyce Edwards, Valeriane Louisy Louis-Joseph, Annique Roberts, and Keon Thoulouis Guest Artists: Kirven Douthit-Boyd, Hannah Alissa Richardson, Randall Riley (courtesy of TU Dance), and Matthew Rushing (courtesy of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) Apprentices: Paris Jones and Elaisa van der Kust Live Music performed by: Peven Everett and Gordon Chambers Musicians: Mario Abney, trumpet; Chris Bruce, guitar; Dan Chmielinski, bass; Peven Everett, keys; Julius Rodriguez, keys; Abraham Rounds, percussion; Jake Sherman, keys; Corey Wallace, trombone Music Credits: Come Sunday by Duke Ellington, Gabriel by Roy Davis Jr. & Peven Everett Licensed from Large Music LLC 1996 All Rights Reserved, Bless It & Rock Shock by Roy Davis Jr., and Shakara by Fela Kuti Grace was originally choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1999. Grace became a part of the EVIDENCE repertory in 2003. Fri, Nov 13, 2020 at 3PM PST | Virtual Community Class This class will be taught by master teachers Ronald K. Brown & Arcell Cabuag and is welcome to all levels, participants should dress in loose fitting clothing. No dance experience needed, just an open heart. Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 3PM PST | Let’s Say Grace and Talk About It After! An online community conversation with Ronald K. Brown and special guests Artist and Filmmaker Arthur Jafa, Associate Professor: UCLA School of Nursing MarySue Heilemann, Artist and Social Justice Advocate Theo Bonner- Perkins and CAP UCLA’s Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds. Moderated by CAP UCLA’s Director of Education Meryl Friedman, the discussion will explore both the aesthetic forms of Grace as a way of artistic expression and the human forms of grace as a source of healing, honoring and empowerment. ABOUT THE COMPANY Founded by Ronald K. Brown in 1985 and based in Brooklyn, EVIDENCE, A DANCE COMPANY focuses on the fusion of African dance with contemporary choreography and spoken word. This work provides a unique view of human struggles, tragedies, and triumphs. Brown uses movement as a way to reinforce the importance of community in African American culture and to acquaint audiences with the beauty of African forms and rhythms. EVIDENCE tours to some 30 communities in the United States annually. The company has traveled to Cuba, Brazil, England, France, Greece, Hungary, Hawaii, Ireland, Holland, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, and in 2010 joined the U.S. State Department’s DanceMotion USASM tour to perform works, teach master classes, and conduct demonstrations. Annually, the company reaches an audience of more than 30,000. Photos by Julietta Cervantes EVIDENCE, A DANCE COMPANY works in partnership with RestorationART & The Joyce Theater. Special thanks to Linda Shelton, Aaron Mattocks, Margaret Hollenbeck, Jean Ross, Ross LeClair, Meghan Rose Murphy, Andy Sheagren, and the board and staff of The Joyce Theater. Additional special thanks to the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, RestorationART, The Billie Holiday Theatre, Colvin Granum, Dr. Indira Etwaroo, and the RestorationART team. Ongoing appreciation to Pierre Apraxine, Torya Beard, Ayodele Casel, Elena Comendador, Janet Cox, Pamela M. Green, Fatima Jones, Sharon Luckman, Mary McCormick and the Fund for the City of New York, Larry Satterfield, Alvin Addell, Joyce Mullins Jackson, Zaid Abdul Aleem, Joanne Hill, Lola West, Monica Azaire, Bruce Gordon and Tawana Tibbs, Reginald Van Lee, and Vera Wells. Key support provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The New York Community Trust, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Bay and Paul Foundations, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Select Equity Group Foundation, and GE Foundation. Additional key support provided by Amit Wadhwaney, Lisa Walker, Robert-Kristoffer Haynes, Ed Henry and Susan Monk, Susan Jacobson and David Moskovitz, Sharon Luckman and Paul Shapiro, Kerry Wingo, and the EVIDENCE Circle of Friends. ABOUT THE ARTISTS RONALD K. BROWN (Founder/Artistic Director) from Brooklyn, NY founded EVIDENCE, A Dance Company in 1985. He has worked with Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/ The Works and other choreographers and artists. Brown has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Philadanco, Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago, Ballet Hispánico, TU Dance, and Malpaso Dance Company. Ron is the recipient of the 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. He has also won an AUDELCO Award for his choreography in Regina Taylor’s award-winning play Crowns, received two Black Theater Alliance Awards, and a Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreography in the Tony Award winning Broadway and national touring production of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, adapted by Suzan Lori Parks, arrangement by Diedre Murray and directed by Diane Paulus. Brown was named Def Dance Jam Workshop 2000 Mentor of the Year and has received; the Doris Duke Artist Award, NYC City Center Fellowship, Scripps/ADF Award, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, Dance Magazine Award and The Ailey Apex Award.