Cleveland-native Antonio Brown caught the dance bug early in his life. Like many kids of his generation, he stood in front of the TV watching music videos and trying to emulate what he saw. His mother, looking to focus all of Brown’s youthful energy, enrolled him in 3rd grade at Cleveland’s Newton D. Baker School of Arts, where studied theater, music, voice lessons, drawing and dance in addition to the three R’s. From grades 6 -12 Brown attended the Cleveland School of the Arts where his dance training was taken to another level, one that got him accepted into New York’s prestigious The Juilliard School where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Brown’s professional career as a dancer began with guest appearances around Cleveland while still in school with Inlet Dance Theatre and the now defunct, Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre. After Juilliard, Brown joined NYC-based Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and performed with them for 11 years. As a choreographer, Brown has created works for Pittsburgh’s Attack Theatre and the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, The Juilliard Dance Ensemble, MOVE(NYC), Cleveland’s Verb Ballet’s, Cleveland State University’s Department of Theater and Dance, Hunter College and Earl Mosley’s Dancing Beyond. He is currently an Associate Choreographer for upcoming Broadway musical Black No More.
In 2020, Brown created the dance film INSIDE for GroundWorks. And in 2021 he became GroundWorks DanceTheater’s first Artist in Residence. Also in 2021, Brown restaged INSIDE for the stage. For Brown’s second work for GroundWorks Mixtape 2.2, Brown returned to his childhood and his passion for music and dance.
“One of the fondest memories I have is of making mixtapes with my dual deck cassette recorder as a kid,” says Brown. “It was a process of discovery for me about my relationship with music and what it meant to me.”
Mixtape 2.2 is a reinterpretation of Brown’s 2018 work Mixtape that he created for his NYC-based dance company, AntonioBrownDance. The 21-minute piece performed to music mixed and arranged by Brown with songs by Jib Kidder, Black Violin and Ben Frost, is an abstract dance journey that integrates social media soundbites from YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok videos.
In making the work with GroundWorks dancers, many of which are new to the company this season, Brown says the dancers had a fresh energy in the studio and worked well together during the creative process. Brown brought his own movement aesthetic to the process that began with the dancers learning phrase work he provided to see what the capabilities of the dancers were and to see how his movement reflected on them. “They were all amazing,” says Brown.
Phrase work is just one tool in Brown’s creative toolbox that he says he has gathered over his career in dancemaking. While Brown says he tries to use different tools with each new work he creates, with Mixtape 2.2 he went back to using some of the same ones that helped to build the original work. “I always try to listen to and see what information the dancers give me during each process,” says Brown. “That feedback is used to enhance the tools I have in my toolbox.”
Brown says being GroundWorks Artist in Residence has also aided in the creative process with the company.
“At first I didn’t know what being an Artist in Residence back in my hometown with GroundWorks meant, but it has been great,” says Brown. “It has been very nurturing for me…I feel like I am constantly being fed information that has made me a better choreographer. The expanded space in which I can reach and connect with the dancers adds a little more texture than usual. Being here feels like a second or third family at this point.”
Brown’s GroundWorks family will perform Mixtape 2.2 as part of GroundWorks Spring Performance Series 2022 in Akron and Cleveland. What audiences will experience with the work, says Brown, is a dance rollercoaster ride within a stylistically diverse world of music where the dancers fluctuate between being themselves and being caricatures of themselves.
Mixtape 2.2 will premiere as part of GroundWorks DanceTheater’s Spring Performance Series 2022 along with the world-premiere works will(O) and (un|re)cover by celebrated choreographer Peter Chu. 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 9 and 3 p.m., Sunday, April 10 at the Knight Stage at the Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St., Akron, and 7:30 p.m., Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7 at the LatinUs Blackbox Theater at Pivot Center for Art, Dance and Expression, 2937 W 25th St, Cleveland. Tickets are $25, Click here for tickets.
Photo of Antonio Brown courtesy of Antonio Brown. Video Credits: GroundWorks dancer Victoria Rumzis with the company rehearsing a solo from Antonio Brown’s Mixtape 2.2. Video by David Shimotakahara.