Ronald K. Brown, a choreographer internationally regarded as being one of the most important of the 20th century, premiered his newest work, “One Shot”, at the CFA’s Breaking Ground Dance Series last Friday evening.

“One Shot” is a multimedia experience, combining both visual and performance arts. According to the CFA website, “inspired by the life and work of African American photographer and Pittsburgh native Charles ‘Teenie’ Harris, Brown’s ‘One Shot’…[and its] dancers embody a range of memorable characters against a backdrop of an opulent middle class, at odds with the hustlers and working-class communities of Harris’s Pittsburgh of the late 1930s and set to a rich score from Pittsburgh’s musical history including works by Billy Strayhorn, Anonimo Consejo and Ahmad Jamal.”

Throughout the show, black and white photographs flash across the stage and set the tone. “One Shot” also features an impressive music selection, with songs by Billy Strayhorn, Ahmad Jamal, Arturo Sandoval, Lena Horne, and Phyllis Hyman. The audience appreciated the variety.

“I was enthralled with the first dances that involved more hip-hop music because they had a lot of energy, while the jazz pieces were a little bit too long and slow,” said Karla Hargrave ’08. “The bongos were fun in the second act. I’m glad they came to campus.”

Alicia Collen ’08, who is currently taking a introductory dance class at Wesleyan, especially enjoyed the ballet-influenced performance.

“I loved the second act,” Collen said. “I thought that the dancers were really talented but I thought that the first act didn’t showcase their talents as well as it could have because it was too repetitive. But I loved the way that Brown used a combination of many dance forms.”

In addition to the two performances, the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery is featuring a selection of photographs by Charles “Teenie” Harris, entitled “Rhapsody in Black and White.” The photographs are being exhibited in conjunction with “One Shot” and are a small sampling of the over 80,000 photographs Harris took during his 40-year career with the Pittsburgh Courier. The collection is described by the CFA as “the largest single collection of photographic images of any Black community in the United States—or the world, for that matter…[and it] surpasses that of any other African American photographer in its breadth and its rich documentation of the life and community spirit of Black urban America.”

Evidence is a dance company directed by Brown that aims to “promote understanding about the human experience in the African Diaspora through dance and the performing arts.” Ronald K. Brown and Evidence have gained attention worldwide for their unique blend of modern, African, ballet and hip-hop dance styles and have toured dozens of U.S. cities each year since Brown founded the company at the age of 19. He has won numerous awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Choreography, a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Fellowship, the American Dance Festival Humphrey/Weidman/Limón Award, and a position as the Def Dance Jam Workshop Mentor for the year 2000.