Sat 2/3 @ 8PM
February is Black History Month but the African American contribution is present in the American experience year-round. Consider Verb Ballets’ concert at Breen Center this Saturday, which remounts four contemporary dance works commissioned from two nationally recognized African-American choreographers.
Choreographer Antonio Brown is a local dancer and a graduate of Cleveland School of the Arts who made good at Juilliard and with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. His Continuum (2011) kept our interest, thanks to intricate groupings, dazzling changes in facing and level, and a trickster’s mastery of false finishes. Brown’s Passing By suggested emotional relationships by presenting several couples dancing in lighting designer Trad Burns’ intensely lit white rectangles.
Tommie-Waheed Evans has an eclectic background as performer and choreographer. He is currently the Artist-in-Residence at PHILADANCO! We described his Dark Matter, an audience favorite, as a hard-edged but exuberant musical visualization. His latest piece for Verb, Surge. Capacity. Force., addresses the timely subjects of refugees, military invasion, homelessness and what it’s like to be without a home. It’s a powerful piece that the Verb dancers perform with great commitment.
Verb Ballets performs works of Antonio Brown and Tommie-Waheed Evans at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts in Ohio City. Both Brown and Evans will be present at a pre-show discussion in the Breen lobby at 7:15pm. To attend the pre-show discussion, please arrive at the Breen Center lobby by 7:10pm.
Single tickets are $25-$35.Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite at verbballets.org.
[Written by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas]
Cleveland, OH 44113