At peace with his place

THE space heater is cranked up to high in the sixth-floor Brooklyn offices of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, where the walls are plastered with posters featuring beautiful dancers and an array of African artifacts ups the exotica ante. Since Brown founded his dance company in 1985, this Bedford-Stuyvesant native who still lives in the ‘hood has generated his own brand of heat, one honed by years spent telling stories through movement -- raw, honest moves whose roots come from a deep spiritual place.

That these stylized moves are also a fusion of diverse idioms -- from balletic and contemporary to hip-hop, postmodern, West African, Caribbean and beyond -- have given Brown, 40, a distinct choreographic voice, a testament not only to his talent but to his wherewithal in keeping a company together for 20 years and counting.

No stranger to Southland audiences, the troupe makes its REDCAT debut Wednesday, with the first of five performances as part of the Music Center’s dance season. “One Shot: First Glance” includes “Grace” and the West Coast premiere of “Order My Steps” as well as a 12-minute portion of the evening-length title piece, an opus-in-progress inspired by African American photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris.

Brown’s audaciousness in starting a company at just 19 has served him well. “I used to dance around the house and put on shows for my family,” recalls Brown, his shaved head draped in a hoodie, with a light beard and mustache accentuating a beatific half-smile. “I even did creative movement for the Police Athletic League.”

Headed to Dance Theatre of Harlem’s summer program in 1978, Brown’s terpsichorean journey was put on hold, he said, when he became enamored of other things. Then 12 and the oldest of four children, he began keeping a journal, writing poetry and doing boy things that didn’t require wearing tights. Deciding to study journalism instead, he eventually earned a scholarship to St. Michael’s College in Vermont

But soon after graduating high school, the teen auditioned and became a member of Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, a celebrated troupe founded in 1957 whose repertoire included work by modernists Lester Horton and Anna Sokolow.

The tenure, as it happens, proved short but pivotal. “The performers in her work never looked at each other,” says Brown. “That bothered me. I wanted to be a person onstage; I wanted the audience to connect to real people onstage.”

Thus was born Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, the name taken from a solo he made in 1985, a telling moniker that would prove to be his modus operandi, one in which his danced narratives would leave footprints, or “evidence,” he says, “of what our families, our ancestors, all our teachers, have taught us.”

Since then Brown and company have decidedly left their mark, performing all over the United States, Canada, France and England, while Brown’s sojourns to the Ivory Coast and other parts of West Africa, beginning in 1994, also helped shape his artistic voice. As a choreographer Brown is much in demand, having made more than 50 works, including a number of high-profile commissions from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Philadanco and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble.

Last year the New York Times’ John Rockwell wrote, “Brown has emerged in recent years as one of the strongest, most distinctive choreographers around.” In 1999, praising “Grace,” an Ailey commission that has since become a classic, the same paper’s Anna Kisselgoff called it a work that “carries a special aura, an added dimension that speaks of spiritual concern.”

Says Judith Jamison, artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre: “The Ron Brown I know is a consummate artist, a real truth-sayer within his choreographic structure, which I find infectious. There are no gimmicks. He goes straight to the truth and the root of the movement, which he uses to convey feelings of love, family, caring about each other and generosity.”

High-energy style

BROWN, who has earned a New York Dance and Performance Award, a Black Theater Alliance Award and a U.S. Artists Fellowship, was named Def Dance Jam Workshop Mentor of the Year in 2000. “Grace,” which teems with whipping arms, explosive turns and abrupt changes in direction, is also a prime example of the West African influence, where head, shoulders and hips are sharply -- and separately -- articulated.

“Order My Steps,” from 2005, with text by poet Chad Boseman, is another riff on God and community, loss and sadness, the emotions cutting to the bone. The notion that one could make dances about God stemmed from a second-grade school trip to see the Ailey company perform its gospel-infused masterpiece, “Revelations.” For “Grace,” which is set to West African music, Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” and several American rock tunes, Brown also credits his initial trip to the Ivory Coast, where he worked with choreographer Rokia Kone.

“I didn’t go there to study,” he explains, “but there would be a going-away party, a block party, all these ceremonies where people dressed up. The range of social and contemporary dance was wide, and I began to deconstruct the rhythms and play with technique. I was developing an aesthetic, making it as physical as I could. It was really fusion before there was fusion.”

Renae Williams, the Music Center’s director of dance presentations, has been a fan of Brown’s work for some time. “I was immediately drawn to the fluidity and complexity of his movement,” she says. “It is not an easy technique to master, and it is truly his own vocabulary infused with varying influences, much like our African American culture.”

But being predominantly an African American dance troupe, Brown has also had to deal with critics labeling his work “black dance,” a la the ethnologically inspired works of the late pioneer Katherine Dunham. He’s come under fire as well from traditional black dance companies for tackling hot-button issues such as AIDS.

“I choose love over fear,” Brown says matter-of-factly, “and I do assume that some people don’t want to talk about things like God or war or killing people. But I feel it’s my purpose to make work that involves risk. You have to keep your integrity, and people will receive it or they won’t.”

Brown also is quick to point out that over the years his troupe has included people from all over the map, including dancers of Korean and Mexican descent. “The bottom line,” he says, “is about whether you can do the work or not.”

And although the company has numbered from as few as four to as many as 15 since its inception, Evidence’s current roster is eight, ages 23 to 40. Arcell Cabuag, 32, a Filipino, has been a member since 1997 and recently assumed the mantle of assistant director.

“Dancing with Ron doesn’t feel like work to me. He is like a great brother, mentor and friend. The work is challenging,” Cabuag says, “and it gives you room to grow as an artist.”

These days Brown’s plate is full: Evidence has one-week seasons at both the Joyce and Apollo Theaters in New York; he has agreed to do a new work for Ailey for 2009; and he continues residencies at Hunter College and New York University. In addition to a rigorous touring schedule, the troupe premieres “One-Shot” next season in Pittsburgh as part of the inaugural season for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

But as is true of all dancers after a certain age, the body begins to go. Brown says he would like to step back from performing and concentrate exclusively on choreography.

“I love to dance, and when I think I want to stop, I think of Carmen De Lavallade, Trisha Brown. It’s a commitment, and you have to stay in shape, but I’ll keep dancing until I become a priest,” he says with a huge smile. “I’ll also keep telling stories, because you don’t run out of stories about how to lift people up.”

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‘One Shot: First Glance’

What: Ronald K. Brown/Evidence

Where: REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St.,

Los Angeles

When: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 3 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: $28 and $32

Contact: (213) 237-2800