Berkeley audiences will recall the Cal Performances debut five years ago of Camille A. Brown & Dancers in performances of Brown’s BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, the second installment of a trilogy by the choreographer about African-American identity. Brown made headlines this past year as the first Black director in the history of the Metropolitan Opera (Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones) and as the first Black woman to be nominated for a Tony Award as both director and choreographer for a play (for colored girls...) on Broadway.
Now, the New York-based choreographer, dancer, and director comes to Cal Performances with ink, the final work in her trilogy. Featuring Brown herself, her company of six dancers performs a series of duets and solos that weave together elements of African-American social dance, African, tap, jazz, and modern dance, and hip-hop movement, accompanied by percussion-driven original music performed live by a quartet. Through ancestral stories and pop culture references, ink examines self-empowerment, Black love, brotherhood, and resilience.