Ronald K Brown

When Stevie Wonder requested that his songs be incorporated into a dance piece, Music Center director of programming Renae Williams Niles immediately suggested Ronald K. Brown. After hearing this, choreographer Brown could hardly believe his good fortune. The singer-songwriter has never asked a choreographer to make a dance piece to his music before. "I had to think of someone who would be willing to take on the weight of such a challenge," Niles recalls. "It wouldn't be an easy task to animate [Wonder's]

When Stevie Wonder requested that his songs be incorporated into a dance piece, Music Center director of programming Renae Williams Niles immediately suggested Ronald K. Brown. After hearing this, choreographer Brown could hardly believe his good fortune. The singer-songwriter has never asked a choreographer to make a dance piece to his music before. "I had to think of someone who would be willing to take on the weight of such a challenge," Niles recalls. "It wouldn't be an easy task to animate [Wonder's]

THE space heater is cranked up to high in the sixth-floor Brooklyn offices of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, where the walls are plastered with posters featuring beautiful dancers and an array of African artifacts ups the exotica ante. Since Brown founded his dance company in 1985, this Bedford-Stuyvesant native who still lives in the 'hood has generated his own brand of heat, one honed by years spent telling stories through movement -- raw, honest moves whose roots come from a deep spiritual place.

THE space heater is cranked up to high in the sixth-floor Brooklyn offices of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, where the walls are plastered with posters featuring beautiful dancers and an array of African artifacts ups the exotica ante. Since Brown founded his dance company in 1985, this Bedford-Stuyvesant native who still lives in the 'hood has generated his own brand of heat, one honed by years spent telling stories through movement -- raw, honest moves whose roots come from a deep spiritual place.

In 1999 and 2001, Ronald K. Brown choreographed suites for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater full of high moral purpose and a complex fusion of dance idioms. It was no surprise, then, to find such values dominating a four-part program by his own company at the Cerritos Center on Saturday. If anything, the eight dancers in Ronald K.

Judith Jamison can recall vividly the April 1989 lunch in St. Louis when Alvin Ailey designated her his artistic heir. "He said, 'I'm not doing well; you know I'm sick, and I'd like you to take over the company.' I said, 'Sure, of course, Alvin.' "That was it. The decision to do it was instantaneous." Jamison, 66, was speaking last month in her comfortable office on an upper floor of the company's sleek, spacious Midtown headquarters. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater recently had completed its annual five-week New York City season, during which Jamison's 20th anniversary as artistic director was honored and celebrated in various forms.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has long bedecked its ensemble in suits (the jazz crowd in "For Bird - With Love") and took a recent turn with androgynous menswear (Camille A. Brown's "The Evolution of a Secured Feminine"). Yet in previous incarnations, these fitted jackets and rakish hats have been of a jazzy, romantic stripe, spurring angled moves and scurrying feet. One imagines a crafty urban vernacular born from fast pedestrians, tight corridors and dizzying heights. Those speedy, showy creatures of past Ailey seasons bore no resemblance to the crumpled, besuited unisex ensemble that came to life Wednesday night at the Music Center premiere of "Minus 16" (1999)

Ronald K. Brown's latest works for his 20-year-old company, Evidence, have the raw power, breakneck speed and immediate accessibility of American street dance. It's concert modernism for the Age of Krumping, and only if you take the trouble to look very, very closely can you see all the African, South American, Caribbean and jazz-dance influences that Brown so seamlessly amalgamates.

Something about the steely resolve and daredevil pliability of Philadanco dancers makes you wonder just how much high-gear dancing can occur before a blowout. In a four-part program on Friday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, a few dancers arched back with such vigor, or flung a leg high with such force, they nearly capsized. But that commitment to clarity and attack is what makes every work they do impressive on some level, even when it takes you on less of a journey than desired.

Steve Earle, who brings his folk rock-country mix to Southern California's two House of Blues locations, will soon add another term to his singer-songwriter-producer- activist-teacher hyphenate: author. His first collection of fiction, "Doghouse Roses," will be published in June. * Steve Earle, the House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, 9 p.m. $25. (714) 778-2583. Also Friday at the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 9 p.m. $25. (323) 848-5100.

In 1999 and 2001, Ronald K. Brown choreographed suites for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater full of high moral purpose and a complex fusion of dance idioms. It was no surprise, then, to find such values dominating a four-part program by his own company at the Cerritos Center on Saturday. If anything, the eight dancers in Ronald K.

Adrenaline kicked into overdrive when the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company shredded the stage of the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Friday with brute power, dizzying energy and unlimited stamina in a program dedicated to Southern California's preeminent choreographer, Donald McKayle. The four works included a world premiere tribute to McKayle, "Mighty Fortress," set to Bach's Cantata No. 80 by company artistic director Kevin Ward.

Ballet companies may have their swan solos, but modern dance has an equally impressive bird variation--the lesser-known "Awassa Astrige/Ostrich" made by Asadata Dafora in 1932. Masterfully performed by G.D. Harris on Saturday night at the Luckman Theatre on the campus of Cal State L.A., it was one of the highlights of the first Southern California appearance by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.