‘The Opulence of Integrity’ to Blend Dancing and Combat

Next weekend, March 15 and 16, Professor of Dance Christal Brown’s dance company INSPIRIT will premiere their new work, “The Opulence of Integrity.” Choreographed by Brown, the performance draws its inspiration from the spirit and legend of Muhammad Ali, featuring elements of boxing, hip-hop and martial arts.

Composed of four movements, “The Opulence of Integrity” has been two years in the making. The performance opens with Ali’s relationship with Malcolm X, marked by the passing of the torch as the catalyst for the black power movement. The piece then delves into the story of Ali as a legend, exploring how humans become superheroes. The performance explores the tensions between “inner choices [and their] outside consequences,” according to Brown, moving into his opposition of the Vietnam War. The last movement then documents Ali’s comeback period, galvanized by his great fight with George Foreman, a movement Brown describes as a “transformative period wherein his victory was not only in spirit, but for the cultures.”

Brown worked with Professor of Theatre Dana Yeaton to coach three students — Cheswayo Mphanza ’16, Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16 and Clifford Alexander ’15 — in performing some of Ali’s poems that interweaves the visual performance into a narrative one.

“Rather than imitate Ali, the students are each being challenged to make Ali’s words their own, connecting them as much as possible to their own experience of being young, male and black in America,” Yeaton said.

“We are not necessarily acting like Ali, but carrying his message through the spirit of what we feel,” Mphanza said. “Your voice and your word are the most important things you can possess as an individual. That is how people will remember you.”

Refracting Ali’s poems through the students’ lens expanded the meaning of Ali’s experience and legend.

“The Opulence of Integrity” does more than just focus on Ali; rather, it uses Ali as an archetype for men of color to expand to include student voices and engage with the audience into a bigger conversation about social responsibility and the conflict between intense personal resolve and human limitations.

“We are able to convey emotions to the audience which result in them conveying emotions back to us,” Mphanza said. “We might be distant in the sense of performer [versus] watcher, but we are able to share a moment together that does not have to be transparent.”

Leading up to the performances are a week-long residency of activities that includes two master classes and a lecture-demonstration in which Brown — a  professor of the class, the Creative Process — discusses her own creative process behind the performance and the experience of working with, for the first time, an all-male dance cast.

“As a black, female artist, I navigated a different perception by understanding compassion and truth,” Brown said. “You have to be very honest with what you’re making. Because I’m taking people’s perceptions into account, letting in parts of who I am was a challenge, but I gave myself the permission to use any part of me at anytime whether that was an artistic choice or not.”

After the premiere, Brown plans to take “The Opulence of Integrity” to the world stage. “We are going to try to get it seen in as many places as we can,” Brown said. “The premiere will give us more information on what it looks like and what to show.”

“Watching the text, sound, lights and movement come together will be a high-stakes thrill,” Yeaton said. “I’m a theatre guy who loves boxing and can’t seem to get enough of the American Civil Rights movement: no one brings those things together more than Ali.”

Roychoudhury hopes to impart to the audience “a reflection of not only the life of Ali, but also the life of all black men in America. Ali as a larger than life persona can reflect on the individual. The audience is not looking through an outside lens, but diving in the community at large.”

The residency opens with a master class for beginners and intermediates taught by INSPIRIT Dance Company on March 12. A second master class in the intermediate and advanced level will be taught on March 13 at 2:50 p.m., followed by Brown’s lecture-demonstration at 4:30 p.m. All the events take place at the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts. Classes are free, but space is limited.

“The Opulence of Integrity” will debut 8 p.m. on March 15-16 at the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts. Tickets are $6 for students, $15 for faculty and $20 for general public.