BIOGRAPHY
Ronald K. Brown
A.R.T.: Debut. Founder and Artistic Director of Evidence, A Dance Company, a New York-based contemporary dance ensemble since 1985. Has also created work for the African American Dance Ensemble, Philadanco, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Grace in 1999, Serving Nia in 2001, IFE/My Heart 2005 and Dancing Spirit during special tribute season), Ailey II, Cinque Folkloric Dance Theater, JenniferMuller/TheWorks and Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire. He has collaborated with composer/ designer OmotayoWunmi Olaiya, the late writer Craig G. Harris, director ErnieMcClintock’s Jazz Actors Theater, choreographers Patricia Hoffbauer and Rokiya Kone, and composers Robert Een, Oliver Lake, Bernadette Speech, David Simons and DonMeissner. He created Dancing Spirit in 2010, as a tribute to Judith Jamison. Awards and fellowships include a John Simon GuggenheimMemorial Foundation Fellowship in Choreography, a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in choreography, New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie), a Black Theater Alliance Award, the American Dance Festival Humphrey/Weidman/Limón Award, and fellowships fromthe Edward and Sally van Lier Fund. In addition, Brown was named Def Dance JamWorkshopMentor of the Year in 2000. In 2003, he received an AUDELCO (Black Theatre Award) for his choreography for Crowns: Portraits of BlackWomen in Church Hats, originally produced by theMcCarter Theater and presented off-Broadway in 2003. In fall 2006, Brown received The United States Artists Rose Fellowship, being one of only four choreographers out of fifty artists to receive the inaugural award. He is amember of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.