Bernard Brown/BBMoves and Laurie Sefton Creates were the featured companies for the first night of the Ebony Repertory Theatre’s annual dance series at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center.
Sitting in the theater waiting for the show to begin feels like sitting in the middle of a Los Angeles dance family tree. Everywhere you look, there is legacy and lineage—elders, mentors, and teachers with their students who have grown up to become teachers, mentors, and colleagues in their own right. Hugs abound as old collaborators and project colleagues engage in blissful reconnections and nostalgic reminiscing and introduce one another to their new projects, partners, and family members. The room holds members from the past, present, and future of dance in Los Angeles and this evening is showcasing two of its children.
Bernard Brown/BBMoves presents multiple pieces from his catalog beginning with his heralded 2018 work, “Come.Unity,” performed by Michael Battle, Jesseca Cipkas, Quron Clarks, Mawiyah Dowd, Jessie Hernandez, Adamaldeozu, and Glen Rodriguez—with video design by Kalena Fields and Costume Consultation by Evan Wilson. “Come.Unity” is emblematic of Brown’s desire to engage in dance making as activism that engenders awareness and advocacy and facilitates “action and empowerment for the participants and…witnesses.” (From Brown’s writing on the subject at https://activisthistory.com/2020/02/04/come-unity-activism-in-the-virtual-realm/)
Bernard Brown/bbmoves – Photo by Steve Rosa
Brown’s work is an evocative, multi-textured experience that utilizes video footage, staging elements, props, wonderfully curated music, poetry, spoken word, and movement that pull from urban black daily life and the diasporic vernacular of black dance to confront inequality, injustice, and systemic oppression.
In one arresting section, against images of protest, neighborhood citizens in distress, and civic misconduct, we hear Amiri Baraka begin reading his poem, “Dope.” “Dope” begins with loud grunts, like someone imitating a monkey. The circular and percussive grunts fill the theater and vibrate in my chest as I watch the dancers collectively enact moments of victimization, but also resistance and solidarity.
Brown also presents two excerpts from his 2023 work “Processing Sugar Notes,” in which he uses sugar—the world’s largest crop—as a multi-purposed metaphor to examine the ways “health disparities, addiction, and the lasting effects of colonialism continue to infiltrate the lives of the global majority (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)…” (From Abron Art Center @newdancealliance.
Bernard Brown/bbmoves – Photo by Steve Rosa
“Episode 1: ‘Cravings’”—performed by Michael Battle, Quron Clarks, and Mawiyah Dowd, with Brown reading Indira Renganathan’s poem, “Sugar Cravings”—begins with a solo dancer pouring large white particles of “sugar” along the perimeter of the stage against striking blue lighting. This sets the stage for a beautiful forthcoming vignettes that—in shifting groupings— show three individuals navigating the tentacled impacts of this substance. Throughout the work, we see them consume, challenge, rage against, and even give into this seemingly overwhelming force.
“Episode 2: ‘The Sweetness of Sweat’”—performed by Michael Battle, Quron Clarks, and Glen Rodriguez, featuring “A Good ACT to Follow,” an excerpt from NPR’s Code Switch podcast—juxtaposes the experiences and struggles for queer men of color in the COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS epidemics. With glistening bodies, seduction, and a steamy duet, “The Sweetness of Sweat” shows how, in the darkest of times, these men “find solace in each other” and use intimacy as their resistance. (from https://www.bbmoves.org/projects-6)
“Mason”—a short film directed by Jingqiu Guan; performed by Tashara Gavin-Moorehead, Adamaldeozu, Latrice Postell, Tamica Washington-Miller, and Sydney Johnson; with music by DeFacto X; Spoken Word by Bryonn Bain; and Costume Design by Kristina Garnett—and “Mason Project”—performed by Mawiyah Dowd, Jessie Hernandez, and Adamaldeozu and Costumes by Bernard Brown—beautifully show the legacy and resilience of women in resistance, who plead, conjure, channel, and pray for their community with eyes locked on a dream, refusing to let go.
“The Mythology of Self” – Dancers Amanda de Oliveira, Gretchen Ackerman, Nicholas Sipes, Choreography by Laurie Sefton – Artwork by Paige Twyman – Photo by Skye Schmidt
Laurie Sefton Creates presented two works in the show. “The Mythology of Self”—performed by Gretchen Ackerman, Amanda de Oliveira, Sidney Scully, Lauren Shaul, Nicholas Sipes; with original music from Victoria Vasta, Emer Kinsella, and Bryan Curt Kostors; Lighting Design by Dan Weingarten and Costume Design by Leon Wiebers—tackles “the idea of who we are and how we present ourselves” and examines “how we have altered our perception of and transformed our digital selves into a continual cache of moments.” (from https://www.stompinggroundla.org/events/laurie-sefton-creates)
The lights come up in the downstage left corner revealing two black chairs facing stage right. In the upstage chair, Visual Artist Paige Twyman sits still holding an electronic device. Standing beside her, Mezzo Soprano Carmen Voskuhl releases her angelic voice and begins to sing an original composition by Victoria Vasta. A woman, Ackerman, walks into the light with nude clothing on. She passes the chairs to a pile of clothes and begins to put them on. As she dresses herself, photographer Skye Schmidt walks onto the stage and begins to photograph the dressing woman. In the next scene, the space is fully lit and we see the stage is fully exposed. The wings are lifted so we can see the chairs along the walls backstage as well as the dancers relaxed and being their ‘true selves’ before they have to be ‘on.’ A man, Sipes, in blue pants with fluffy winged arms fills the stage with large movements. As he galivants about the space, Schmidt orbits around him, assuming various high and low positions to get the perfect shot.
“The Mythology of Self” – Choreography by Laurie Sefton – Dancers Nicholas Sipes, Gretchen Ackerman, Amanda de Oliveira, Lauren Shaul, Sidney Scully – Artwork by Paige Twyman – Photo by Skye Schmidt
Suddenly we begin to see photographs appear on the screen that spans the stage. Schmidt’s photographs are stunning, capturing beautiful moments and poses. Her photographs are altered by Twyman who remains in her chair with her head down working diligently on her electronic device. Twyman varies the photographs with creative doodles, effects, embellishments, and filters. This repeats throughout the work as other characters take the stage.
It is an interesting experience to see the dancers’ expression and then see moments of that expression flashed onto the screen. Part of me feels the camaraderie one experiences when a photograph evokes a memory and you nostalgically think, I remember that moment. In some images, I say to myself That photograph looks more exciting than the actual moment. In my various reactions to the photographs flashing across the screen—juxtaposed against what I am witnessing the dancers do in real time—I see Sefton’s point.
“Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things” – Choreography by Laurie Sefton – Dancers Leah Hamel, Sidney Scully and Karina O’Gara – Photo by Skye Schmidt
Sefton’s second work, “Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things,”—performed by Leah Hamel, Karina O’Gara, and Sidney Scully (with understudy Gretchen Ackerman); set to original music by Bryan Curt Kostors; Lighting Design by Dan Weingarten; and Costume Design by Merissa Mann and Sefton—goes a different direction.
The stage environment feels sterile. The theater’s concrete wall is exposed. On it, the lights create cross-hatch patterns that fill the wall. It makes me think of a prison cell containing a prisoner who’s been trapped for a long time and checks off the days to keep their sanity. The trio is dressed in flesh-toned costumes. Their movements are edgy and unnatural, like the women in “The Stepford Wives.” The music is discordant and unsettling. In an ending section of the work, a gorgeous cello plays yet there is something about the women that remains sad and soulless.
Sefton’s two works feel very poignant in contemporary conversation about technology as we ask ourselves questions like, Just because we can do it, should we? What do we want to be? And where does technology fit in that?
For more information on Bernard Brown/BBMoved, please visit their website.
To learn more about Laurie Sefton Creates, please visit their website.
For more information about the Ebony Repertory Theatre and the Nate Holden Theatre Performance Arts Center, please visit their website.
This article was updated at 12:16 pm on 6/27/23 to update photos.
Written by Marlita Hill for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Laurie Sefton Creates “The Mythology of Self” – Photo by Jazley Faith
