The connection with famed choreographer Ronald K. Brown and Kirven Douthit-Boyd, Co-Artistic Director of Dance at COCA (the Center of Creative Arts), is endearing – and enduring.
Their creative partnership dates back nearly two decades. Douthit-Boyd was a principal dancer with the iconic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Brown, known for his vivid compositions that reflect the beauty, richness and complexity of the African and African-American experiences as expressed through dance – and for founding EVIDENCE, A Dance Company nearly 40 years ago – was often trusted to be in the choreographer’s chair for Ailey.
“I was with the company from 2004-2015, and I actually danced every single thing Ron created for the company at that time, so my history with him runs deep,” Douthit-Boyd said. “And when I left New York to come to St. Louis, he invited me to join EVIDENCE as a guest artist.”
For the past six years, Douthit-Boyd has been teaching and training the dancers of tomorrow at COCA, while representing the dancers of today with the Brooklyn-based EVIDENCE. This weekend, the elements of his dance worlds will collide when COCA hosts EVIDENCE at the organization’s first in-person dance concert since the onset of the pandemic.
“I know that some of the St. Louis community, and some of my colleagues, might have seen some of my work when I was dancing with the Ailey Company, but it really is quite special for people to see Ron’s work and to see me in that space,” Douthit-Boyd said.
The performances are set to take place April 16-April 18 and will also be streamed, but 100 guests will be allowed to view the show in-person each night at COCA’s new state-of-the-art Berges Theatre.
“I have to tip my hat to the team, who has been able to shift and adapt in real time – and really staying in contact with the county to make sure we are not breaking any rules,” Douthit-Boyd said. “It’s really been a blessing to be able to pull this off.”
It is a weekend seven months in the making. Brown and EVIDENCE were supposed to be presented in concert back in September. But as with countless other live performance opportunities throughout the region, the nation and the world, COVID-19 restrictions meant that the concert had to be postponed.
Instead, Brown and EVIDENCE spent three weeks with COCA in January as their artists in residence. Brown was able to rehearse with EVIDENCE and bring them back together in a bubble type situation, and he created a brand-new work.
“This upcoming performance is a culmination of that,” Douthit-Boyd said. “We’ve been able to manage and stay safe and still do some form of our work and we are just so thrilled to be presenting the company to the community.”
Douthit-Boyd description of Brown’s choreography parallels a religious experience.
“It is so transformative the way Ron blends music and the way that he arranges the structure of his work,” Douthit-Boyd said. “There is something very human about what he presents, and there is something that is very real that is almost like its spiritual.”
While dancing with EVIDENCE, Douthit-Boyd said the troupe embodies an engaging sense of community thanks to Brown’s creative genius.
“He pays such attention to detail in the way that he is telling the story that you kind of get wrapped up in what that is and trying to deliver that to the audience,” said Douthit-Boyd. “You are almost transported out of your everyday self in order to achieve that level of grace that you are giving to his work – and to the people who are taking it in.”
Being able to present Brown and EVIDENCE live in-person is a light at the end of the tunnel of sorts for Douthit-Boyd and the dance department at COCA, which he helms with his husband and fellow Ailey alum Antonio Douthit-Boyd.
The pandemic meant that he had to re-imagine how to teach an art form that depends on bodies moving together in the same space.
“It’s been tough, but I am fortunate to work with students who are very dedicated to their craft,” Douthit-Boyd said. “When we first went virtual, it was a bump in the road. It was a learning curve, and I had to readjust my thinking about my curriculum in the way that I’m teaching, but also the way that I’m creating and how all of that was going to happen.”
COCA recently reopened at 25 percent capacity.
“We have some bodies in the space and some bodies in front of the computer,” Douthit-Boyd said. “When dancers were able to come back into the space, it made me feel good because I saw that they understood even virtually.”
The students will learn the new selection from EVIDENCE’s performance and present it themselves in the spring.
“I’ve held his work so near and dear to my heart, and it has been important to me to have the kids have access to Ron and his work and the company,” Douthit-Boyd said. “The concert is a full circle moment that I’m really looking forward to.”
COCA’s presentation of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company, will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 16 and Saturday, April 17 and at 3 p.m. on April 18 on livestream and with a limited number of in-person seats available.
Visit www.cocastl.org for more information about the performance or to purchase tickets.