Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE
Ife: My Heart & Four Corners

Floor 3, Theater

Thursday, October 10 at 1 pm, 4 pm
Friday, October 11 at 4 pm, 7 pm
Saturday, October 12 at 1 pm*, 4 pm

*Audio description will be available for the performance on October 12 at 1 pm.

Presented at part of Edges of Ailey, the mission of EVIDENCE is to promote understanding of the human experience in the African diaspora through dance and storytelling and to provide sensory connections to history and tradition through music, movement, and spoken word, leading deeper into issues of spirituality, community responsibility, and liberation.

Ronald K. Brown’s Ife: My Heart was built as the journey of three families traveling to one destination, the temple of God, a place where the heart was open. Originally choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2005, the work looks at the parallel journey of three traditions towards love or “ife” (loving one another the way God loves us). With costumes that reference the US, Cuba, and West Africa, the piece implores each of us to “release your heart” in response to the conflicts and conditions in the world and in our personal relationships.

Four Corners brings to life the vision of four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds, and trails the dancers as they embark upon a powerful and hope-filled journey of tribulation, devotion, and triumph.

Ife: My Heart
Choreographer - Ronald K. Brown
Assistant to Choreographer - Arcell Cabuag
Costumes - Omotayo Wunmi Olaiaya  
Lighting - Brenda Gray (original), Tsubasa Kamei (resetting) for EVIDENCE
Music - Various

Four Corners
Choreographer - Ronald K. Brown
Assistant to Choreographer - Arcell Cabuag
Costumes - Omotayo Wunmi Olaiaya 
Lighting - Al Crawford (original), Tsubasa Kamei (resetting) for EVIDENCE
Music - Carl Hancock Rux, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Yacoub

Ronald K. Brown, raised in Brooklyn, NY, is the recent recipient of the Martha Hill Mid-Career Achievement Award (2024) and American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (2024). His other awards and recognitions include the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award (2020), as well as the Dance Magazine Award (2018) and Samuel H. Scripps/ADF Award (2018). He has also received an AUDELCO Award for his choreography in Regina Taylor's award-winning play Crowns, 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. “I hope that when people see the work, their spirits are lifted. I am interested in sharing perspectives through modern dance, theater and kinetic storytelling. I want my work to be evidence of these perspectives,” says Brown. 

Brown was named Def Dance Jam Workshop 2000 Mentor of the Year and has received the Doris Duke Artist Award, NYC City Center Fellowship, 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, and The Ailey Apex Award.

Ronald K. Brown is Co-Artistic Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre’s Youth Arts Academy, and a member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.

Ife: My Heart was originally commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2005. 
Four Corners was originally commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2013.