The mission of Evidence, A Dance Company, 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.

Founded by Ronald K. Brown in 1985 and based in Brooklyn, New York, Evidence focuses on the seamless fusion of traditional 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 traditional African forms and rhythms. He is an advocate for the growth of an African American dance community and is instrumental in encouraging young dancers to choreograph and to develop careers in dance.

Ronald K. Brown has been making dances since the second grade. Growing up in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, he took classes in the Police Athletic League Dance Program and performed in his high school musicals. He studied extensively with Mary Anthony, whose technique includes a combination of Martha Graham and Hanya Holm. Brown’s first performance was held at Anthony’s studio, financed by three family members each donating $200 for staging and costumes. Early on he performed with Jennifer Muller/The Works, who along with Bebe Miller and Maguy Marin were hugely influential to his work.

Brown’s dances derive from his interpretation of the human condition and refer to numerous cultural sources. These sources include history, traditions, and dance forms from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, combined with kinetic story telling, and modern and urban dance movement. Through dance Brown explores the history of blacks in America and passes on African culture to a new generation. His stories and movement express traditional themes of community, ritual, and collective experience. He wants audiences to see commonplace subjects in new ways, to open their minds to new experiences, and to foster tolerance and spiritual growth. In Brown’s words he wants his work to represent “all the information that has gone into us – the stories, the history. It is really the human experience.”

Music and text fuel Brown’s story telling and reflected in his programming is a broad range of musical forms from classical or world music to pop or hip-hop. Upside Down, about a community in mourning is accompanied by a vocalist from Mali and that of Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Come Ye is inspired by the work of jazz singer Nina Simone and the events of September 11th. Grace, originally choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is a spiritual journey set to the music of Duke Ellington and others.

Brown has choreographed works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Def  Dance Jam Workshop, MUNTU Dance Theatre of Chicago, Ballet Hispanico and Philadanco. He choreographed Regina Taylor’s award-winning play, Crowns.

“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.

Evidence now tours North America annually, and has also traveled overseas to Cuba, Brazil, England, Ireland, France, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Holland, Hawaii, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Nigeria, and Senegal to perform, teach master classes and conduct lecture/demonstrations for young people. Evidence brings arts education and cultural/historical connections to local communities that have historically lacked these experiences. Annually, the company reaches an audience of more than 30,000.

In 2010, while celebrating its 25th anniversary, Evidence joined the U.S. State Department’s DanceMotion USA initiative for a special four-week tour to Africa.

The February 2011 premiere of On Earth Together, set to the music of Stevie Wonder, brought audiences at the Joyce Theater to their feet with Brown’s signature blend of “intense, compulsive energy and fluidly brilliant dancing” (The New York Post). The company also shared On Earth Together’s message of social responsibility to communities around the U.S., at the American Dance Festival in summer 2011.  Most currently, Ronald K. Brown has choreographed the American Repertory Theatre and Broadway production of Porgy and Bess at the Richard Rodgers Theatre starring Audra McDonald.