Camille A. Brown

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 many notable 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! 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.

Currently, Camille A. Brown is performing her new work “ink,” the final installation of the company’s trilogy about culture, race and identity. “ink” follows the Bessie Award-winning “Mr. TOL E. RAncE” (2012) and Bessie-nominated “BLACK GIRL:Linguistic Play” (2015). Drawing on historic and contemporary rhythms, rituals, and gestural vocabulary of the African Diaspora, "ink" reclaims African-American narratives by showcasing their authenticity. The work examines the culture of Black life that is often appropriated, rewritten, or silenced. Recently, Camille A. Brown & Dancers was honored to partner with Google Arts & Culture on an exciting 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.

Up next, Camille A. Brown is the Choreographer for Roundabout Theater’s Toni Stone, Much Ado About Nothing- directed by Kenny Leon, Once The Musical, and will make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Choreographer for Porgy & Bess.

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.

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 many venues both nationally and internationally, 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.

In 2019 she was nominated for a TONY for Best Choreography.

Brown has received notable awards and accolades including being a five-time Princess Grace Award recipient, Tony Award Nominee for best Choreography for Choir Boy, TED Fellow, Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, USA Jay Franke & David Herro Fellow, 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. Her TED-Ed talk on the influence of African and African-American social dance in the United States can be found on TED.com, TED-Ed, and across various social media platforms.

In 2018, Ms. 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.

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.

In 2014, Ms. 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.

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.