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Camille A. Brown
Born (1979-12-11) December 11, 1979 (age 44)
EducationUniversity of North Carolina School of the Arts (BFA)
Occupation(s)Dancer, Choreographer, Director
AwardsBessie Award for Outstanding Production;
Tony Award Nominee;
Drama Desk Award Nominee;
Princess Grace Award (2006, 2013, 2016, 2016);
TED fellowship[1]

Camille A. Brown is a dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has congruently choreographed commissioned pieces for dance companies, Broadway shows, and universities. Brown started her career as a dancer in Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (2008 and 2011). Brown has choreographed major Broadway shows such as Choir Boy, Once on This Island and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert![2] that aired on NBC. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA (University of Akron), among others.[3]

Camille A. Brown & Dancers partnered with Google Arts & Culture on a project for Black History Month exploring the story of Black history and culture through dance where "ink" was highlighted and filmed at Brooklyn Historical Society.[4]

Brown has received awards and accolades including being a five-time Princess Grace Award recipient,[5] Tony Award Nominee for best Choreography for Choir Boy,[6] TED Fellow,[7] Guggenheim Fellowship,[8] Doris Duke Performing Artist Award,[9] Obie Award,[10] Dance Magazine Award Honoree,[11] USA Jay Franke & David Herro Fellow,[12][13] and a Bessie Award. She has been featured on the cover of Dance Magazine (April 2018) and Dance Teacher Magazine (August 2015).

Brown has performed at the 2018 and 2015 TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada and given talks at both TEDxBeaconStreet and TEDx Estée Lauder Companies.

Camille A. Brown is the Choreographer for Roundabout Theater’s Toni Stone,[14] Much Ado About Nothing- directed by Kenny Leon,[15] Once The Musical, and will make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Choreographer for Porgy & Bess.[16] Brown made her directorial debut with the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, and Fire Shut Up In My Bones for The Metropolitan Opera (co-directed with James Robinson).

Ms. Brown made her Broadway Directorial Debut for the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf making her the first Black woman to Direct and Choreograph a Broadway show in 67 years. The production received 7 Tony Award nominations including Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography, 3 Outer Critics Circle Award nominations including Outstanding Director of a Play and Outstanding Choreography, 3 Drama League Award nominations including Outstanding Direction of a Play, 3 Chita Rivera Award nominations including Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show, and 2 Drama Desk Award nominations and The New York Times proclaimed the production "Triumphant" and "a Broadway homecoming celebration that you will not want to miss."

Dance training

As a child, Brown trained at The Bernice Johnson Dance Center and The Carolyn DeVore Dance Center. She continued her training in high school at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts while simultaneously attending The Ailey School on scholarship. Brown earned a B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and went on to dance as a member of Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.[3]

Camille A. Brown & Dancers

Brown's company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, debuted in 2006. Reviewing their debut, The New York Times said Brown's "personal physical style, with its focused bursts of energy and frozen positions that explode into motion, colors her group works very differently."[17]

Camille A. Brown & Dancers has performed works such as ink, Bessie Award winning Mr. TOL E. RAncE, Bessie Award nominated BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, City of Rain, Good & Grown, and The Groove to Nobody’s Business, among others. The company has performed these works in national and international venues, including The Kennedy Center, NYU Abu Dhabi, The Joyce Theater, New York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, The Yard, White Bird, REDCAT, and Belfast Festival at Queen's, among others.[18]

Choreography

Informed by her music background as a clarinetist, Brown creates choreography that utilizes musical composition as storytelling. Brown has choreographed for various commercial and theater projects including Choir Boy, Once On This Island, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert!, NIKE/Air Jordan, BELLA: An American Tall Tale (Director: Kirsten Childs), Cabin in the Sky (musical) (Director: Ruben Santiago-Hudson), and Broadway's A Streetcar Named Desire. Dance companies that have commissioned her work include: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco, Urban Bush Women, Complexions, Ailey II, and Ballet Memphis. Her works have been performed at The Kennedy Center, Apollo Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Madison Square Garden, and New York City Center. She also was the choreographer for Saverio Palatella's line, Wholegarment 3D, for New York Fashion Week in 2008.[19]

In 2019, she was nominated for a TONY for Best Choreography.[20]

Community engagement

In 2014, Brown founded two initiatives: The Gathering, an annual open forum for intergenerational Black female artists to advocate for greater cultural equity and acknowledgement in the dance world; and BLACK GIRL SPECTRUM (BGS), a community engagement initiative.[21]

On June 4, 2016, BGS had its inaugural symposium with the theme “Social Dance for Social Change” at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre in Harlem, NY.[22]

In 2018, Brown created a community engagement platform, Every Body Move (EBM), to serve as the umbrella for all initiatives that bring the artistic rigor of Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ beyond the stage and into communities. Every Body Move works to cultivate the creative capacity of its participants through workshops, summer intensives, artistic encounters, educational experiences, public actions, and celebrations for people of diverse abilities, identities, and ages. The initiative includes: Black Girl Spectrum (BGS); Black Men Moving (BMM); The Gathering; Creative Action Lab; Every Body Move Celebration.[23]

Choreographed works

Honors

References

  1. ^ TED Staff (17 December 2014). "Meet the 2015 class of TED Fellows and Senior Fellows". TED (conference)s, LLC. Retrieved 4 Feb 2015.
  2. ^ "Interview: Camille A. Brown On Creating The Moves For NBC's 'Jesus Christ Superstar'". Awardsdaily. 2018-04-01. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  3. ^ a b Brown, Camille (2016). "Camille A. Brown". Princess Grace Foundation - USA. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  4. ^ "Camille A. Brown & Dancers". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  5. ^ "Camille A. Brown". Princess Grace Foundation-USA. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  6. ^ Chambers, Brittany. "The First Black Woman Choreographer Nominated For A Tony In Over Two Decades: Camille A. Brown". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  7. ^ Brown, Camille A. "Camille A. Brown | Speaker | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  8. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Camille A. Brown". Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  9. ^ "2015 Doris Duke Artist Awards". www.ddcf.org. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  10. ^ Obie Awards 2020: Camille A. Brown Acceptance Speech, retrieved 2022-02-17
  11. ^ Asantewaa, Eva Yaa (2020-12-04). "Dance Magazine Award Honoree: Camille A. Brown". Dance Magazine. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  12. ^ "United States Artists » Camille A. Brown". Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  13. ^ "Award Archive". The Bessies. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  14. ^ "Toni Stone". www.roundabouttheatre.org. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  15. ^ "Much Ado About Nothing". publictheater.org. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  16. ^ Allen, Zita (2019-09-19). "Camille A. Brown choreographs Met Opera's 'Porgy & Bess'". New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  17. ^ Sulcas, Roslyn (18 December 2006). "New Group, Has a Debut, Full Quiver on Display". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  18. ^ Brown, Camille (2013). "The Company". Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  19. ^ Brown, Camille (2013). "Artistic Director & Choreographer". Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  20. ^ Forbes - First Black Woman Choreographer Nominated for a Tony in over two decades: Camille Brown, Brittany Chambers June 03, 2019
  21. ^ "Every Body Move". Every Body Move. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  22. ^ Brown, Camille (2013). "Engagement". Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  23. ^ Brown, Camille (2018). "Every Body Move". Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  24. ^ Tangcay, Jazz (2022-05-05). "Director and Choreographer Camille A. Brown Makes History at the Met and on Broadway". Variety. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  25. ^ "2017 Winners | Audience Development Committee, Inc". 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  26. ^ Stahl, Jennifer (2018-12-30). "Our 2018 Cover Stars Shared Their Biggest Hopes for the Year Ahead". Dance Magazine. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  27. ^ "2018 Lucille Lortel Awards Nominees & Recipients". The Lucille Lortel Awards. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  28. ^ Millward, Tom (2018-05-07). "Outer Critics Circle Awards 2018... And the Winners are..." New York Theater Guide. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  29. ^ "Once On This Island Broadway Tickets". www.telecharge.com. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  30. ^ "2018 Winners and Nominees". www.chitariveraawards.com. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  31. ^ "Nominations for the 2019 Drama Desk Awards Announced; Oklahoma!, Tootsie, Rags Parkland Lead the Pack". Playbill. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  32. ^ "Choir Boy". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  33. ^ "2019 Nominees | Audience Development Committee, Inc". 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  34. ^ "2019 Winners and Honorees | Audience Development Committee, Inc". 2019-11-19. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  35. ^ "SDCF AWARDS 2019 | Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation". Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  36. ^ Mahany, Michael (2020-04-14). "Camille A. Brown Leads The 2020 Lortel Award Choreography Noms". New York City Dance. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  37. ^ "Nominees". Drama Desk Awards. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  38. ^ Broadway Black Presents The Inaugural Antonyo Awards, retrieved 2022-02-18
  39. ^ Cristi, A. A. "Camille A. Brown Honored With Distinguished Artist Award By International Society For The Performing Arts & Receives Andrew W. Mellon Award". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  40. ^ Asantewaa, Eva Yaa (2020-12-04). "Dance Magazine Award Honoree: Camille A. Brown". Dance Magazine. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  41. ^ "Camille A. Brown". Emerson Collective. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  42. ^ "ISPA 2021 Distinguished Artist Award Recipient". ISPA, International Society for the Performing Arts. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  43. ^ "The Kennedy Center Next 50". The Kennedy Center. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  44. ^ Theater, Author: New York (2022-05-17). "2022 Chita Rivera Award Nominations". New York Theater. Retrieved 2022-05-17. ((cite web)): |first= has generic name (help)
  45. ^ "2022 Awards - The Drama League". dramaleague.org. 2021-11-22. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  46. ^ Miller, Deb (2022-04-26). "Nominations announced for the 71st annual Outer Critics Circle Awards for on and off Broadway". DC Metro Theater Arts. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  47. ^ "2022 Tony Awards Nominations". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  48. ^ "The 2nd Annual Antonyo Award Nominations". Broadway Black. 2022-06-21. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  49. ^ Robles, Heather. "THE BESSIES ANNOUNCE NOMINEES FOR THE 2022 BESSIE AWARDS". The Bessies. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  50. ^ Rabinowitz, Chloe. "2nd Annual Antonyo Award Nominations Announced - See The Full List!". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  51. ^ "DANCE LAB HONORS". DANCE LAB NEW YORK. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  52. ^ Theater, Author: New York (2024-04-04). "Lucille Lortel Award Nominations 2024: Off Broadway's Best". New York Theater. Retrieved 2024-04-04. ((cite web)): |first= has generic name (help)

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