Camille A. Brown

Camille A. Brown is an American dancer, choreographer, director, and dance educator. Four-time Tony Awards nominees, she started her career working as professional dancer with Ronald K. Brown's company in the early 2000s. In 2006 she founded her own dance company, the Camille A. Brown & Dancers, producing severals dance productions, winning a Princess Grace Awards and a Bessie Award.

Since 2010s Brown worked on stage musical productions, including Robert O'Hara's Bella: An American Tall Tale, Michael Arden's Once On This Island and Kenny Leon's Much Ado About Nothing, winning two Audelco Award and being nominated at the Drama Desk Awards and Lucille Lortel Awards. For her choreography direction on 2019 Choir Boy, she was nominated at the Tony Award for Best Choreography.

In 2022 Brown made her musical direction debout with for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, which was prised by critics and received seven nominations at the 75th Tony Awards, including for Best Direction of a Play. In 2023 she choreographed Alicia Keys's mucial Hell's Kitchen, for which she won a Drama League Award, a Chita Rivera Award and received her fourth Tony Award nomination.

During her career Brown also worked on television special and films, including Emmy Awards winner Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA (University of Akron).

Brown has received 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, Obie Award, Dance Magazine Award Honoree, 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).

Life and career
Camille A. Brown was born and raised in the neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens in New York City. Since she was a child she studied dance and performing arts at the local Bernice Johnson Dance Center and at the Carolyn DeVore Dance Center. She continued her studying 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 Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

After her graduation, Brown danced as professional dancer of Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company from 2001 to 2007, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement and at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Between 2004 and 2005 she worked for two concert dance with Urban Bush Women. In 2006 Brown founded her company Camille A. Brown & Dancers. The group 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.

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.

In 2018 Brown choreographed Choir Boy at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre by Trip Cullman, for which she was nominated at the Tony Award for Best Choreography.

In 2019 Brown debuted at The Public Theater as Off-Broadway musical director and choreographer with production of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. In 2021 was announced that the production was moved to Broadway Booth Theatre, becoming the first black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway production in six decades. The musical was praised by critics, being nominated at the Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, Lucille Lortel Awards and received seven nominations at the 75th Tony Awards, including for Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography.

In 2023 she was involved as choreographer for Alicia Keys's Off-Broadway mucial Hell's Kitchen. In April 2024 the production move to Broadway at the Shubert Theatre, being critical acclaimed and earning thirteen nominations at the 77th Tony Awards, including for Best Choreography for Brown. She also won her first Drama League Award and Chita Rivera Award.

Philanthropy and 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.

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

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.

In 2022 Brown 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.

Other theatre and concert dance notable productions

 * 2002      (Hubbard Street 2)
 * 2004     Demetia's Serenity (Camille A. Brown)
 * 2005     More Time Than Anybody (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2005     Shelter of Presence (Camille A. Brown)
 * 2005     Nahum (Ailey II)
 * 2006     Afro Blue (Reflections Dance Company)
 * 2006     New Second Line (Reflections Dance Company)
 * 2006     More Time Than Anybody (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2007     The Evolution of a Secured Feminine (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
 * 2007     Here We Go...Again?! (Urban Bush Women)
 * 2007     The Groove To Nobody's Business (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
 * 2008     Saverio Palatella's line – Wholegarment 3D (New York Fashion Week)
 * 2008     Un Festin Divin (Ballet Memphis)
 * 2008     Matchstick (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2009     The Groove To Nobody's Business (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
 * 2009     The Blues On Beale (Ballet Memphis)
 * 2009     Good Times, Ha! (The Youth American Grand Prix)
 * 2009     Those Who See Light (Philadelphia Dance Company – Philadanco!)
 * 2010      Our Honeymoon Is Over (Dallas Black Dance Theater)
 * 2010      Been There, Done That (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2010      City of Rain (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2010      By Way of East (Kyle Abraham & Camille A. Brown)
 * 2010      The Evolution of a Secured Feminine (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
 * 2012      Strum (Toni Pierce Sands and Uri Sands Dance (TU Dance))
 * 2012      One Second Past the Future (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2012      Memories (Complexions Contemporary Ballet)
 * 2012      Bind (The Juilliard School)
 * 2012      Pins & Needles: FUREE (Director Ken Rus Schmoll)
 * 2012      HOUSE (Director Saheem Ali)
 * 2012      Fortress of Solitude (Director Daniel Aukin)
 * 2012     A Streetcar Named Desire (Director Emily Mann)
 * 2013      William Shakespeare's The Winter’s Tale (Director Rebecca Taichman)
 * 2013      MR. TOL. E RAncE (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2014      The Box: A Black Comedy (Director: Seth Bockley)
 * 2014      tick, tick...BOOM! (Director: Oliver Butler)
 * 2014      GALOIS (Director: Victor Maog)
 * 2014      The Fortress of Solitude (The Public Theater)
 * 2015      Blood Quilt (Director: Kamilah Forbes)
 * 2015      Stagger Lee (Director: Patricia McGregor)
 * 2015      Cabin in the Sky (musical) (Director: Ruben Santiago-Hudson)
 * 2015      BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2016      BELLA: An American Tall Tale (Director: Robert O'Hara)
 * 2016      NIKE/Air Jordan Web Commercial with Russell Westbrook
 * 2017      ink (Camille A. Brown & Dancers)
 * 2018      Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! on NBC
 * 2019      Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre, Director: Pam MacKinnon)
 * 2019      Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park, Director: Kenny Leon)
 * 2019      Once (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Director:  J. Michael Zygo)
 * 2019      Porgy & Bess (The Metropolitan Opera, Director: James Robinson)
 * 2019      for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf ( The Public Theater, Director: Leah C. Gardiner)
 * 2020      Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix)
 * 2021      Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous (Spotlight On Plays)
 * 2021      Fire Shut Up in My Bones (The Metropolitan Opera)
 * 2021      Toni Stone (Arena Stage)
 * 2023       Hell's Kitchen (The Public Theater)

Film and television choreographed works

 * 2022 Harlem (Amazon Prime Video)

Other awards and honors

 * 1997 - The Helen Tamiris Award – Performance
 * 1997 - Young Artist's Award – Performance
 * 1997 - Presidential Scholar of the Arts Award – Dance Performance; Young Artist's Award – Performance; The Helen Tamiris Award – Performance
 * 2013 - Princess Grace Works in Progress Residency
 * 2015 - USA Jay Franke & David Herro Fellow
 * 2015 - TED Fellow
 * 2016 - Jacob's Pillow Dance Award
 * 2016 - Guggenheim Fellowship
 * 2017 - Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow
 * 2017 - Irma P. Hall Black Theater Nomination (BELLA: An American Tall Tale)
 * 2017 - Black Woman Scholar Warrior Award (Montclair State University)
 * 2018 - Cover Girl of Dance Magazine (April)
 * 2019 - Choreography Mentorship Co-Commission (CMCC) Award (Princess Grace Award)
 * 2020 - Dance Magazine Award Honoree
 * 2020 - Emerson Collective Fellow
 * 2021 - ISPA Distinguished Artist Award
 * 2022- Kennedy Center Next 50
 * 2024- Dance Lab New York Honoree