Summer 2025 Dance Residency

The mission of EVIDENCE is to promote understanding of the human experience in the African Diaspora through dance and storytelling and to provide sensory connections to history and tradition through music, movement, and spoken word, leading deeper into issues of spirituality, community responsibility and liberation.

Founded by Ronald K. Brown in 1985 and based in Brooklyn, New York, EVIDENCE, A Dance Company focuses on the seamless integration of traditional African dance with contemporary choreography and spoken word. Through work, EVIDENCE provides a unique view of human struggles, tragedies, and triumphs. Brown uses movement as a way to reinforce the importance of community in African American culture and to acquaint audiences with the beauty of traditional African forms and rhythms. He is an advocate for the growth of the African American dance community and is instrumental in encouraging young dancers to choreograph and to develop careers in dance.

Brown’s choreography is in high demand. He has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Philadanco, and others. He choreographed Regina Taylor’s award-winning play, Crowns and won an AUDELCO Award for his work on that production. “I hope that when people see the work, their spirits are lifted. I am interested in sharing perspectives through modern dance, theater and kinetic storytelling. I want my work to be evidence of these perspectives,” says Brown.

EVIDENCE now tours to some 25 communities in the United States and abroad. The company has traveled to Cuba, Brazil, England, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa and Canada to perform, teach master classes and conduct lecture/demonstrations for individuals of all ages. EVIDENCE brings arts education and cultural connections to local communities that have historically lacked these experiences. Annually the company reaches an audience of more than 25,000.

Ronald K. Brown, raised in Brooklyn, NY, founded EVIDENCE, A Dance Company in 1985. He has worked with Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, as well as other choreographers and artists, and has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School. Brown has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Philadanco, Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago, Ballet Hispánico, TU Dance, and Malpaso Dance Company.

He has collaborated with such artists as composer/designer Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya, the late writer Craig G. Harris, director Ernie McClintock’s Jazz Actors Theater, choreographers Patricia Hoffbauer and Rokiya Kone, composers Robert Een, Oliver Lake, Bernadette Speech, David Simons, and Don Meissner, and musicians Jason Moran, Arturo O'Farrill and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Brown is the recipient of the 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. His other awards and recognitions include the AUDELCO Award for his choreography in Regina Taylor’s award-winning play Crowns, two Black Theater Alliance Awards, and a Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreography in the Tony Award winning Broadway and national touring production of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, adapted by Suzan Lori Parks, arranged by Diedre Murray, and directed by Diane Paulus.

Brown was named Def Dance Jam Workshop 2000 Mentor of the Year and has received the Doris Duke Artist Award, NYC City Center Fellowship, Scripps/ADF Award, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, Dance Magazine Award, and The Ailey Apex Award.

Brown is Co-Artistic Director of Restoration ART Youth Arts Academy Pre-Professional Training Program / Restoration Dance Youth Ensemble, a member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, and a Creative Administration Research artist at NCCAkron.

Beth Gill is an award-winning choreographer based in New York City since 2005. Her multidisciplinary works are captivating, cinematic timescapes, the product of long-term collaborations with celebrated artists. Gill is the proud recipient of the Herb Alpert, Doris Duke Impact, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and two “Bessie” awards. She has toured nationally and internationally and been honored with (among others): Guggenheim Fellowship, NEFA’s National Dance Project grant, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Artist in Residence.

Gill’s dances are serious, slow-moving, and chiseled, meditative experiences poised between performance and visual art. Like horror and suspense genres they are works of extreme tension. The focus and arousal they create is a kind of escape and transcendence of the everyday. Paradoxically, her work is both intimate and alienated, sensual and ascetic. She dreams and visualizes her dances, transforming her unconscious into iconographic choreography.

Brian Brooks is a Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography and current MFA candidate at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His New York City-based group, the Moving Company, has been presented by venues including The Joyce Theater, NY City Center, Jacob’s Pillow, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Recent projects include a Mellon Foundation Creative Artist Fellowship at the University of Washington, and three years as first-ever Choreographer in Residence at Chicago's Harris Theater for Music and Dance, creating dances for Hubbard Street Dance, Miami City Ballet, and others. Brooks has created multiple duet productions in which he performed alongside NYC Ballet Associate Artistic Director and former principal dancer Wendy Whelan, accompanied by the Grammy-nominated string quartet Brooklyn Rider. He has choreographed several off-Broadway productions including A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013), directed by Julie Taymor, and Pericles (2016), directed by Trevor Nunn. In conjunction with his extensive teaching, including four separate projects at Tisch, he has created dances for schools including Princeton University, Rutgers University, Boston Conservatory, and The Juilliard School.

DONNA COSTELLO is a dance artist working in the field of dance, theater, performance and education. She centers the body as a deep vessel of expression with the aim to foster connection within and for community. Donna collaborates with a multitude of artists performing and creating in apartments, public parks, historic landmark buildings, pools, fields, stages and schools in the U.S. and abroad. Recent performance highlights include works by choreographers jill sigman/thinkdance, Carrie Ahern, Nicole Mannarino, Kelly Bartnik, Vicky Shick, filmmaker Darryl Hell, visual artist Nick Cave, and theater artist Jennifer Sargent/Vagabond Inventions. At the core of her creative work are ideas on belonging and femininity. Her choreography has been presented and supported by Dixon Place, chashama, Triskelion Arts, BAX, Movement Research at Judson Church, the Flea Theater, Roulette, James Madison University, Estrogenius Festival, WomeninMotion, MOtiVE Brooklyn, NACL, Definitive Figures Festival in New Orleans (CoProducer) and Performatica in Mexico. She champions the authentic voice of young people through her work as teaching artist, curriculum specialist and consultant with BAX, Juilliard’s K-12 Programs & Initiatives and the Park Avenue Armory. Donna is a current MFA candidate at NYU/Tisch Dance Interdisciplinary Research program. For more information visit donnacostello.org.

Yusha-Marie Sorzano is an Afro-Caribbean immigrant hailing from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a relentless, dynamic performing artist, choreographer, educator and leader who has worked in concert dance, theater, opera, television, and film. Having performed in 8 renowned concert dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Sorzano’s work builds bridges among a multitude of cultural identities, dance forms, and styles to celebrate and reveal the universality of dance as communion. Her choreography is a weapon of resistance, a way to reconcile and champion the full spectrum of her identity. Her choreographic works have tackled social justice, feminine identity, and the intersectional experiences of Deaf minorities, as she is hard of hearing herself. She has collaborated with creative leaders in the arts, including Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, Camille A. Brown, Matthew Rushing, Ari Afsar, Lauren Gunderson, Jermaine Spivey and Spenser Theberge, and she is the recipient of fellowships at The Watermill Center, Jerome Robbins Dance Division at New York Public Library, and YoungArts: The National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. She was one of eleven choreographers featured in Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the first large-scale exhibition to celebrate the life, dances, influences, and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey — and she is the choreographer of RZA’s A Ballet Through Mud, a poignant coming-of-age story that delves into the complexities of love, the bonds of friendship and personal growth. Ms Sorzano currently serves as Artistic Director of Sorzano Dance Works and as Co-Artistic Director of Zeitgeist Dance Theatre.

DUAL RIVET is a women-led dance company focused on creating and sharing highly physical contemporary dance to a wide audience. Based in NYC, Dual Rivet creates work for stage and film that exchanges a cinematic and visceral language to influence both platforms. Directors Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth have been making and presenting work since 2017. They have performed and set work at Festival PRISMA (Panama), Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico), Oklahoma International Dance Festival, Barnard College/Columbia University, West End Theatre, Kittery Maine, Musikfest Pennsylvania, Peridance Capezio Center, CreateArt, Arts On Site and many more. The company teaches a myriad of classes, throughout the United States and internationally, with an emphasis on contemporary partnering and floorwork. Dual Rivet is currently on faculty at The Juilliard School, Gibney, Peridance, SUNY Purchase and Adelphi University. The company hosts an annual choreography festival, MADE BY WOMEN, highlighting women choreographers and creators.

For more info: www.dualrivetdance.com.
Instagram: @dualrivet

JESSICA SMITH (she/they) is a New York City based dancer from New Orleans, Louisiana. She studied at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, London Contemporary Dance School, and received her BFA in dance from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College. She has performed with companies such as Punchdrunk's Sleep No More NYC, Vim Vigor Dance Company, ZviDance and Kizuna Dance. She continues to teach and set work at schools, festivals, and training programs throughout the U.S. and internationally. Jessica was one of eight choreographers chosen for The Jacob's Pillow Ann and Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellowship in 2022. She was the Associate Director of Arts On Site NYC, a non-profit arts organization, for 4 years. Jessica is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Dual Rivet, a highly physical contemporary dance company based in NYC. Jessica is currently on Faculty at The Juilliard School, Purchase College, Gibney, Peridance and STEPS.

CHELSEA AINSWORTH is a graduate of the Dance Department of The Juilliard School. After graduating she worked with Johannes Wieland/StaatstheaterKassel in Germany, Lorena Egan, Flexicure, Amber Sloan, Bryn Cohn + Artists and was on the modern/ballet dance faculty at Cap21 musical theater school and Chen DanceCenter. Currently she is dancing with The Bang Group, as well as ZviDance. She’s also the co-founder and Executive Director of Arts On Site, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting artists of all disciplines by offering affordable studio space and hosting monthly events to encourage community collaboration. She also built and curates residencies at a retreat and residency center in the Shawangunk mountains in upstate New York. In 2020 she joined the Dance Advisory Board of Marymount Manhattan College.

Sofia Nappi is choreographer and artistic director of KOMOCO, a contemporary dance company based in Italy and active internationally, that she co-founded alongside her first muses, Adriano Popolo Rubbio and Paolo Piancastelli. Right from the start, Sofia's early creations with KOMOCO have won prestigious awards: the Partner Introdans Award (Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition 2021), and the 1st Prize, Critics Award, and Production Award at the 35th International Choreography Competition Hannover from the Tanja Liedtke Foundation and Marco Goecke (2021). Currently KOMOCO's works, choreographed by Sofia, are presented in Italy and internationally, with tours across Europe as well as Mexico, Canada, and Serbia, hosted by international institutions and festivals such as: La Biennale di Venezia, The Albania Meeting Dance Festival, RomaEuropa Festival, MASDANZA, The Colors International Dance Festival, Teatros del Canal and Madrid en Danza, Danse Danse (Montreal), Belgrade Dance Festival, to name a few. As an independent choreographer, Sofia also creates new works for internationally renowned dance companies and theaters, such as the National Theatre Mannheim, Staatsoper Hannover, Scottish Dance Theatre, Introdans, Göteborg Opera, Nederlands Dans Theater 2. In 2025, Sofia will create new works for Leipzig Ballet, Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus and Ballet BC. In parallel, Sofia Nappi’s work extends into research and professional training at an international level in close collaboration with the dancers of KOMOCO. The KC Teachers are trained key collaborators who bring this distinct Komoco research and repertory worldwide. They have been instrumental in teaching and spreading this innovative movement approach across Canada, the USA, Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, Serbia, the UK, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond, fostering a global dialogue within the dance community.

UPROOTED EDUCATION GOALS, VALUES AND EDUCATIONAL MISSION.

Jazz dance is an art-form for the ages. Rooted in African culture, its vibrant and revered styles have influenced generations of dancers, artists and creatives throughout its evolution. But these roots are not always fully acknowledged. Jazz dance is loved but misunderstood, with entire generations now forgetting the origins of dance due to insufficient education and materials that lead it to be misinterpreted.

That’s why the multi award-winning creative team behind HBO Max’s incredible documentary, Uprooted – The Journey of Jazz Dance’, are taking control. The film’s exclusive live educational jazz dance events now breathes new life into jazz dance, ensuring students can carry its legacy for years to come.

One of the reasons we embarked on making the film, which ultimately led us to our educational mission, was the lack of materials and information available for dancers, educators and teachers. Without truly knowing the history of where jazz dance originated, and exploring the jazz dance roots, we cannot fully understand how it evolved and where it is going...

There were several influential and essential jazz dance masters whose names were not always highlighted in history. Our mission is to correct that.

We are not here to cancel any part of the jazz dance journey but merely here to pass on all of the history, names and knowledge, so we can all be as fully informed as possible.

They are all relevant!

The UPROOTED jazz dance educational mission is to physically explore the historical roots of jazz dance providing a greater context and understanding of where the jazz dance movement originated from and how it has evolved through each decade. The jazz dance workshops and intensives we provide will be with some of the industry’s finest educators. It’s our responsibility to educate our students, and be as informed as possible as teachers, so this art form can live on.

Learn Jazz Dance From Leading Educators

Our jazz dance workshops and intensives are designed to deeply explore and discover the historical roots of jazz dance. We bring some of the industry’s leading artists, dance historians, scholars and educators, in their field, into your studio with their incredible experience and knowledge of every style of jazz dance. Our educators take the time to raise awareness and understanding of where jazz dance is all derived from. The jazz dance workshops will have discussions on the importance of why we must reiterate ALL of the information while celebrating the history and art form to its truest authenticity.

Our jazz dance programs bring some of the finest educators and artists together in one course. They each bring their extensive knowledge about the historical context of the jazz dance art form into the dance studio, leaving the dancers with a deeper understanding about the historical roots of jazz dance.

The UPROOTED Jazz dance programs are unique in their broad offering of a wide range of jazz dance styles, so the student(s) can truly discover and learn about the roots of this amazing art form. Our jazz dance intensive encourages the dancer to grow and experience jazz dance styles they may never have had the opportunity to train in, which in turn expands the dancers understanding and knowledge of where jazz dance came from and how it has evolved.

You will leave the jazz dance workshop feeling like your dance skill set has been enhanced, an expansion and connection to new jazz dance colleagues and artists, and with a deeper understanding of what jazz dance truly is, both physically, historically and academically.