in Human, RAIIN Dance Theater's first production, is a dance show that combines contemporary hip hop, trap music, spoken word and jazz in an exploration and celebration of black culture.
"The question we seek to answer is what happens when a person or a people are identified as less than human and what does that classification do to the type of art they create," says Raianna Brown, RAIIN artistic director and in Human choreographer.
Spoken word artists act as MCs for the two-act 90-minute show, guiding the audience through the production’s loose narrative. Dancers’ colorful costumes are slowly pulled away to reveal nude-colored outfits. “We’re talking about how when you take away all this stuff on the outside, we still have this very vibrant and rich culture inside all of us,” says Brown. “When we talk about these issues, we tend to talk about them in such a large way that its hard to really connect with people. For this show we wanted to focus on how the individual was affected and how the unique history of black culture and America affects both the classified and the classifier.”
RAIIN Dance partnered with Georgia Tech's School of Industrial Design; students helped create a set dancers move themselves. "We wanted to optimize the set change process and make the process a continuous flow," says Brown. Georgia Tech's Adaptive Digital Media Lab helped with projections. Art is projected onto the white set to signify location changes.
Credit: Q. Oliver
Credit: Q. Oliver
Brown is currently an Industrial Engineering student at Georgia Tech. in Human is her first time choreographing something of this magnitude — 27 dancers are in the show's company. Brown has previously taught dance around Atlanta and participated in emerging artist showcases throughout the country. In 2015, she choreographed "I Can't Breathe," a commentary on police brutality. Staib Dance brought the piece to Sant' Agate, Italy.
“Choreography and dance [have] the ability to surpass the conscious and go straight to the subconscious. We didn’t even speak the same language, but they were still able to understand what I was trying to say in the piece ,and it connected to them,” says Brown. “For me that’s where dance can really play a role in social justice and changing conversations.”
in Human is also the first production for fledgling RAIIN Dance Theater, started earlier this year by Brown, Kyla Langdon, Ty Nycia Wooden and Camille Atere-Roberts. The company's mission echoes throughout the show; RAIIN aims to create art that makes people join in the conversation surrounding social change, justice and an appreciation of who black people are as a culture.
“I just hope we’re able to grow and build with all the other communities that are here and make Atlanta dance even better,” says Brown. “Because it’s already great.”
8 p.m., Nov. 17. $10-$22. Ferst Center for the Arts, 349 Ferst Dr., Atlanta. raiindancetheater.org.
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