Camille A. Brown


Camille A. Brown is an American dancer, choreographer, director, and dance educator. She is a five-time Tony Award-nominated director and choreographer who began her career as a professional dancer with Ronald K. Brown's/Evidence company in the early 2000s. In 2006 she founded her own dance company, the Camille A. Brown & Dancers, producing several dance productions, winning a Princess Grace Award 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.
Brown made her directorial debut with for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf for which she was nominated for the Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography. She was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Alicia Keys's musical Hell's Kitchen and Gypsy. She worked on the NBC special Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.

Early life and education

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 Cultural Arts Center and at the 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.

Career

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, Cabin in the Sky (musical), 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 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 2019, Brown choreographed Porgy & Bess for The Metropolitan Opera, as well as co-directed with James Robinson on Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up In My Bones and choreographed Terence Blanchard's Champion, both also at The Metropolitan Opera.
In 2023 she was involved as choreographer for Alicia Keys's Off-Broadway mucial Hell's Kitchen. In April 2024 the production moved 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 won the Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography and the Audelco Award for Best Choreographer.
In 2025, Brown was announced to be director/choreographer of the Broadway revival of Dreamgirls, which is set to open in fall 2026 and commissioned for a new a.k. payne work titled Mouth of Mississippi to be produced by National Black Theatre.

Activism and charity

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, 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, 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 ; Black Men Moving ; 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. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA.

Credits

Theatre

Other productions
TitleYearsLocationNotes
Awakened in Slumber2002-2023U.S. National TourConcert dance by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago;
Shelter of Presence2004Concert dance by Urban Bush Women;
Nahum2005Alliance of Resident Theatres Concert dance by Alvin Ailey American Dance;
New Second Line2006Concert dance by Reflections Dance Company;
The Groove To Nobody's Business2007Alliance of Resident Theatres Concert dance by Alvin Ailey American Dance;

Film and television

Recognition

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 and Dance Teacher Magazine.
She has also been recognized with the:
  • 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
  • 2017 - Black Woman Scholar Warrior Award
  • 2018 - Cover Girl of Dance Magazine
  • 2019 - Choreography Mentorship Co-Commission 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