Every beginning is in time and every limit of extension in space.
The fall dance season gets off to a rousing start with the West Coast premiere of I AM, the acclaimed new work by Camille A. Brown & Dancers—a 60-minute blast from the future that celebrates exuberant self-ownership as a means to communal power.
Connected to one another in groups and sequences, Brown’s dances for her company investigate “stories of ritual, gestural vocabulary, and traditions of the African Diaspora.” Picking up the conversation where her 2019 dance ink left off, I AM centers the here, now, and next in a work inspired by an episode of Lovecraft Country that portrayed Hippolyta traveling through time and space on a journey of discovery and realization.
Danced by a group that includes Alain Hurrikane Lauture, Brianna Dawkins, Chaz Ryan, Courtney Cook, Courtney Ross, Curtis Thomas, Dorse Brown, Eboni Edwards, Kai Irby, Mikhail Calliste, Mykal Kilgore, Nya Carter, and Travon Williams, I AM is set to original music by Deah Love Harriott, Jaylen Petinuad, Frédérique Gnaman,Monique Brooks Roberts, Zane Mark, Juliette Jones, and Martine Mauro-Wade—with the latter two performing onstage with Kareem Matcham during its three-day run at the Ahmanson. See link below for details.
I AM
Camille A. Brown & Dancers
Friday and Saturday, September 12 and 13, at 7:30 pm
Sunday, September 14, at 2 pm.
Ahmanson Theatre
135 North Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles
musiccenter.org/camille-a-brown-dancers
Opening quote by Immanuel Kant, referenced in Lovecraft Country, Episode 7, “I Am.”
Camille A. Brown & Dancers, I AM (2024), photos (from top) by: Cherylynn Tsushima (1, 2, 3, 5) and Becca Marcela Oviatt (4), courtesy and © the photographers, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and the Music Center.
I AM projection design by Aaron Rhyne, set and lights by David Arsenault, sound design by Justin Ellington, and costumes by Ashley Soliman.
