The Brown Suite – Richmond Theatre review

The Brown Suite – Fundamentally Dance; Photograph Viktor Erik Emanuel

Phenomenal music and original, exciting choreography

The Brown Suite is brilliant. It was only on at Richmond theatre for a few days, but it’s coming back to London, so if you like Soul music, go and see it.

I’d almost call it a ballet, in that it is a story told entirely in dance, and some of the choreography is distinctly balletic, but it’s a mash up of styles – ballet, jazz, contemporary, street dance, funk, soul.

The story is simple enough – young people go out to a disco and hook up, then there’s a falling out because one of the blokes gets jealous.

‘Guys’ I should say, not ‘blokes’, as it’s set in New York in the early seventies, but the story is universal and timeless. Saturday Night Fever-ish, but simpler, and with better music and more authentic costumes, tapping into a different New York demographic.

This is the world of Harlem – Smalls Paradise, the only major nightclub in the neighbourhood which was Black owned and racially integrated, where the working class went to let off steam; the Apollo Theater, where James Brown performed more than two hundred times.

The soundtrack is phenomenal – the original music by James Brown, Etta James and Sam Cooke, introduced as records being played by the DJ in the nightclub.

BlacBrik – Darius Drooh and Nahum McLean; Photograph Viktor Erik Emanuel

‘The music leads. Story follows the sound, not the other way round. And because we’re both obsessed with film, we built it in scenes – nothing earns its place just because the song is great’ the creators explain in the programme introduction.

And the dancing just blows you away.

The Brown Suite is the project of Nahum McLean and Darius Drooch who started choreographing together at the Ailey School in New York in 2013. Darius is from California; Nahum is from the UK and trained in Cuba before receiving a scholarship to the New York school. Together they are co-founders of dance troupe BlacBrik.

They are both in the production themselves, and watching them is mesmerising, though the power of the music is such there is an almost irresistible urge to go and join them on the stage.

The Brown Suite – Fundamentally Dance; Photograph Viktor Erik Emanuel

‘There’s just something about James Brown’s music that’s infectious!’ they say. ‘There’s a reason he’s the most sampled artist of all time.

‘But it’s also his range of emotion, from joy and playfulness to anger, vulnerability and intensity, that gives you so much to work with when you’re telling a story’.

These are the real deal – the ‘Godfather of Soul’ born into poverty in the Depression and imprisoned for armed robbery before getting into music professionally; Sam Cooke the son of a Baptist minister; Ettta James also growing up singing gospel music in church, experiencing a turbulent childhood marked by instability and hardship. The passion in the music speaks of real-life experience.

‘The Brown Suite is more than a tribute to an iconic performer. It is a celebration of a musical revolution’.

The Brown Suite – Fundamentally Dance; Photograph Viktor Erik Emanuel

Nahum and Darius explain what they are trying to achieve with the choreography in the programme – in itself, a stylish keepsake made to look like an old record album.

Watching the performance on stage you can see the realisation of what they describe:

‘The movement draws from ballet and modern dance, alongside the social dances and movement cultures that grew from jazz, funk and soul.

‘We aren’t interested in keeping these forms in separate boxes. We’re interested in what happens when they meet.

‘Ballet gives us line, clarity and a particular relationship to partnering. Modern dance gives us weight, breath and release. Social dance brings individuality, conversation, and a feeling of moving with and responding to other people.

‘But none of these are fixed roles. A ballet line can loosen into a social gesture. A grounded movement can become expansive. A rhythm can travel from one dancer to another until it belongs to both of them’.

The result is fresh, original and exciting to watch, and the dancers are all insanely talented.

The production is currently on tour all round the country but will be back in London at the Hackney Empire 19 – 22 May next year.

thebrownsuite.com