Fast-paced and educational, this Afro-Contemporary dance technique class will challenge participants to engage body, mind, and spirit, learn movement phrases, push beyond “technique,” and to explore their own individual performance choices throughout. Focusing on breath, alignment, rhythm and articulation, this contemporary movement experience will incorporate many influences including Africanist movement technologies, postmodern aesthetics, and modern & contemporary dance techniques with a distinct emphasis on the foundational Katherine Dunham technique. Class will have live DJ accompaniment by DeFacto X.

Bio:

Bernard Brown is an award-winning Los Angeles-based performer, choreographer, arts activist, and educator who situates their work at the intersection of Blackness, Queerness, and belonging. With an extensive performing career, Bernard now serves as Executive Artistic Director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves – a social justice dance company, choreographing for stage, specific sites, film, and opera presented globally. Brown has received invitations, residencies and commissions from On The Boards (Seattle), The Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the Centre de Développement Chorégraphique la Termitière (Burkina Faso), Dance Italia (Italy), The Music Center (Los Angeles), The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (Los Angeles), Dance Mission Theater (San Francisco), danceBox (Japan), Johns Hopkins University, National Immigration Law Center, California African American Museum, among others. Brown conducts lectures, workshops, and master classes internationally, namely in Korea, Panama, Israel, Burkina Faso, Canada, Puerto Rico, Malta, and Brazil, and across the US various educational institutions and community-centered organizations. A first-generation college graduate, Brown earned his MFA from University of California, Los Angeles and BFA from Purchase College. He is an Assistant Professor of Dance at UC San Diego, a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor, and a California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”

An ADA-accessible entrance to the Glorya Kaufman Community Center is available through the garden gate from the parking lot. It will open approximately 30 minutes before the program begins.

RSVPs for this free program do not guarantee admission to the A-Frame Theater. Doors will open and seating will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the program. Limited seating is available on a first come, first served basis. Please note that doors will close promptly at the program’s start time and late entry will not be permitted.

Photo by David B. Arenas