Camille A. Brown
Camille A. Brown, originally from Queens, New York, and a graduate of the LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, is a prolific choreographer who has received multiple accolades and awards for her daring works. Informed by her background as a clarinetist, she utilizes musical composition as storytelling and makes a personal claim on history through the lens of a modern Black female perspective. She leads her dancers through excavations of ancestral stories, both timeless and traditional, connecting history with contemporary culture. Her versatility is demonstrated in works that range from the light-hearted (Groove to Nobody’s Business; Been There, Done That) to spiritually based (New Second Line; City of Rain), politically charged with comedic flare (Mr. TOL E. RAncE) to personal (BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play).
Honored with multiple awards, she is a four-time Princess Grace Award winner, and received the 2016 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award, among others. In 2016 she received a Bessie nomination for BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, and her company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, received a 2014 Bessie Award for Mr. TOL E. RAncE. Brown’s work has been commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco!, Complexions, Urban Bush Women, and other companies. Her theater credits as choreographer include: A Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway), Fortress of Solitude (Public Theater), Stagger Lee (DTC), and Marcus Gardley’s The Box: A Black Comedy, among others. She is the choreographer for the Broadway revival of Once on This Island (opening fall 2017).
Brown is the founder and artistic director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, which strives to instill cultural curiosity, introspection, and reflection in its audiences and conducts a wide range of educational programs with students, young adults, and incarcerated women and men from local communities across the country.