EVIDENCE DANCE COMPANY

NAF coming to high school students in Grahamstown much earlier than usual this year.

The National Arts Festival will be coming to high school students in Grahamstown much earlier than usual this year. On March 1 at 15h00, in association with the US Embassy, the National Arts Festival will present the New York-based Evidence dance company at the Guy Butler Theatre in the 1820 Monument Theatre.

“We want to create a year-round programme of high quality arts events which would be easily accessible for Grahamstown’s youth,” said the Festival Director, Ismail Mahomed. “We want to give them access to artists who will inspire them to strive to greater heights. The Festival has enjoyed a long term partnership with the US Embassy who over a number of years has supported several projects at the Festival, so we’re delighted that we are able to kick off our 2010 Grahamstown outreach initiative with the Embassy’s continued loyal support of the Festival.”

Performances by Evidence are powerful, physical and uplifting. Their mission 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. The company will make their South African debut in Grahamstown straight after a successful tour of Senegal.

The dance company was founded in 1985 by choreographer Ronald K. Brown whom The New York Times has praised as "… one of the most profound choreographers of his modern dance generation". Ronald K. Brown has created works for his company Evidence, as well as works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cinque Folkloric Dance Theater, and Jeune Ballet d'Afrique Noire, among others. He has received numerous awards and fellowships including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie), among many others. In 2006, Brown received the inaugural United States Artists Rose Fellowship.

During the brief Grahamstown stopover, Ronald K. Brown and the company have conducted three workshops to aspirant dancers and dance students.

The “15 days of amazing!” at the National Arts Festival will run from June 20 to July 4, 2010, in Grahamstown. For more information visit the website on www.nationalartsfestival.co.za

The National Arts Festival is sponsored by Standard Bank, The Eastern Cape Government, The National Arts Council, The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, The Sunday Independent and M-Net.