WELCOME to 1970s New York - where the music is loud, the dancefloor is pumping and anything can happen.
The autumn, Bradford audiences are invited to step into The Brown Suite, a thrilling new dance show celebrating music, dance and human connection.
Six lives collide in a vibrant soul-era community, where a glance can become a flirtation, a dance can become a romance and one night can change everything. Friendships form, passions ignite and hearts are broken as the characters find love, lose it and search for their way back to one another. At the heart of it all is the music. A generation-defining soundtrack fuels world-class dancers and exhilarating choreography, bringing the swagger, style and infectious energy of the era to the stage.
Nahum McLean and Darius Drooh - two halves of dance company BlacBrik and choreographers of The Brown Suite - tell us more.
For those discovering The Brown Suite for the first time, what’s it all about?
Nahum: “The Brown Suite is a dance-theatre work inspired by the music of James Brown, Etta James and Sam Cooke. It’s set in a social space in 1970s New York and follows six friends over the course of one night - relationships, joy, tension, flirtation, conflict and everything that happens when people come together in a space where they can be themselves.”
Sexy, soulful, funny and full of life, The Brown Suite is a celebration of music, dance and human connection. Come for the story. Come for the dancing. Come for the groove. Images: Deborah Jaffe
Darius: “At its heart, it’s about people. The music gives us the landscape, but the characters and their relationships drive the piece. We wanted to create something that feels alive and familiar - where you recognise the energy of being in a room with your friends, but see how quickly that energy can shift.”
The Brown Suite runs at the Alhambra Theatre from November 6-7. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk
Nahum: “What we didn’t want was a tribute act - six songs and a nostalgia trip. You’re a seventh person at that gathering. You know these dynamics because you’ve lived them: the friend who’s had one drink too many, the couple pretending they’re not a couple, the person quietly holding the whole room together. One night, six people, and by the end you know exactly who they are to each other.”
Monique Jonas and Nahum Mclean.
How would you describe who you are as artists and the work you create together?
N: “We’re both dancers and choreographers, but what BlacBrik is really interested in is the intersection of the forms we love - ballet, contemporary, jazz, funk, African diasporic movement, social dance - and what happens where they meet.”
D: “Each of those forms already tells a story in its own way - ballet has a relationship to line and restraint, social dance has a relationship to individuality and call-and-response. We’re interested in what it means when a character can move between those languages - that tells you something about who they are.”
How has James Brown’s music been present in your life?
N: “James Brown has always felt bigger than just music to me. There’s something physical about it. You don’t just hear James Brown, you feel the rhythm in your body.
My relationship with his music goes back further than my professional training; I auditioned for my vocational ballet school dancing to James Brown. So in a way, he’s been part of every serious step I’ve taken as a dancer.”
D: “And there’s such a huge range within his music - aggression, humour, sensuality, vulnerability, swagger and joy. That range gives you so much to work with as a performer and choreographer.”
N: “There’s a reason his music has had such an enormous influence on dance and popular culture. The rhythm demands a physical response, and for us that became a really important starting point for the work.”
What ideas, experiences or conversations have sat at the heart of The Brown Suite?
D: “One of the biggest things has been community - what happens when people create a space for themselves. We were interested in social spaces and what they can mean beyond simply being somewhere to go out.”
N: “We were interested in relationships. Friendship, attraction, competition, vulnerability, masculinity, femininity - all those little negotiations that happen between people when they’re together.”
D: “We didn’t want to romanticise the period. There’s joy in the piece, but also fracture. The social world we’re creating can be beautiful and complicated at the same time.”
N: “A lot of our conversations kept coming back to who holds the room and who’s holding themselves together while they do it. Six friends means six different jobs in that dynamic: the peacemaker, the instigator, the one everyone’s protecting without saying so. We wanted the choreography to carry those roles even in the moments where nobody’s speaking.”
D: “It was important to us that the fracture felt earned, too - not a twist for the sake of drama, but the kind of thing that’s been sitting under the surface of a friendship group for years before it finally comes out on a night like this one.”
'One night, six people - by the end you know who they are to each other' (Image: Deborah Jaffe)
You have a very diverse training. Is this show where you can bring your different movement knowledge together?
D: “Ballet and contemporary technique give us certain tools - line, structure, weight, space, precision. Then the social and African diasporic movement traditions bring rhythm, groove, individuality and a different relationship to the music.”
N: “The exciting part is what happens when they influence one another.”
D: “Practically, it means a dancer might hit a classical line one beat and let it collapse into something social and loose the next, without a seam. It’s how people move when they’re comfortable in a room, half showing off and half just existing.”
What do you hope audiences carry with them after watching The Brown Suite?
N: “Hopefully they’ve laughed, danced, maybe recognised something of themselves in one of the characters.”
D: “I hope they leave with a sense of the power of social spaces, where people can gather, connect, express themselves and simply exist together.”
N: “Ultimately, I want them to remember the people. The music is iconic, but we want the audience to care about these six people and the night they’ve just experienced. If they leave wanting to talk about what happened between them, we’ve done our job.”
D: “If they’re still arguing about who was right and who was wrong on the drive home, we’ve done our job twice over.”
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The Brown Suite runs at the Alhambra Theatre from November 6-7.
Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk