Hard Stories Magically Told

    Camille A. Brown is a student of history and a raconteur. Her dances tell stories of historical moments and of ordinary lives in a particular place in time. 

   Her signature style blends virtuosic modern dance with the churning, stabbing arms and pulsating backs of West African movement and the effect is both dynamic and eloquent.

   In her solo, “The Evolution of a Secured Feminine,†Brown, a tiny woman, wears a brown suit partially cut away, and a fedora  that completely covers her face. Her body does the talking, sometimes as an old, arthritic man, laughing and gesturing in conversation with the audience, sometimes as a young wife who discovers, to the plaintive sounds of the Nancy Wilson song, “Guess Who I Saw Today,†that her husband is cheating on her. 

   At the moment she learns the truth, Brown shudders as if she had been punched in the stomach.  

   “Matchstick†blends dance, live music (the pianist, Brandon McClune, is on stage and part of the action) and spoken word and song to illuminate a moment, halfway between the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement, when young black men had to choose between staying in the South, and a life of picking cotton and barely surviving, or leaving their families behind for cities in the North like Chicago and Detroit, where there were jobs for the taking.

   “The air was charged with ideas. Do we remember what it cost to speak?†intones J. Michael Kinsey, as four dancers, DuJuan Smart Jr., Otis Donovan Herring, Juel D. Lane and Keon Thoulouis, try to persuade each other of one choice or the other, slamming a

table, slumping exhausted in a chair, leaping and falling. How many times have I seen a dance where macho men posture and fight?  This time what they’re fighting over matters. Their choice shapes the future of the country.

   Brown works in less serious modes too. 

   “The Groove To Nobody’s Business†takes place on a subway platform in summer. Tempers rise, couples form and split, quarrels break out, the train goes by without stopping. All the dancers are marvelous, but Francine Elizabeth Ott, fine, a little older and less svelte stands out. She lends both gravity and wit to the proceedings.

   “Girlz Verse 1,†by contrast, is storyless. Five women dance, mostly in unison, to the rapid-fire, rhythmically complex hip-hop of M.I.A.

   “Been There, Done That†is a charming and sassy duet for Brown and Lane, who squabble verbally as well as physically, again to the jazz songs of Nancy Wilson. 

   And “New Second Line†is an homage to New Orleans, made just after Katrina, for the whole company, who ululate in grief at what was lost but then burst out in exuberant jubilation. 

   Brown and her dancers tell painful stories and recall difficult and even tragic times in history, not just to instruct but to celebrate, and the emergence of this extraordinarily talented young choreographer at this difficult time is cause for celebration indeed.

   For information on Jacob’s Pillow programs, go to www.jacobspillow.org or call 413-243-9919.