Camille A. Brown
Uses genre-spanning dance and education to elevate Black stories, foster creativity, and empower others to tell their own stories.
Camille A. Brown is an award-winning director and choreographer whose work celebrates African diaspora culture and elevates Black stories in American dance. Her credits include the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival, Once On This Island, the Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, and the Emmy Award-winning Jesus Christ Superstar Live on NBC. Brown also runs her own dance company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, which draws on the aesthetics of modern dance, hip-hop, African dance, ballet, and tap to tell stories that connect contemporary culture with history.
As an artist committed to advancing social justice, Brown’s community engagement focuses on fostering learning and spreading the joy of dance. But the COVID-19 pandemic has created additional barriers to entry for young artists of color, whose access to dance education and career opportunities has been already limited.
As an Emerson Collective Fellow, Brown is building a Social Dance for Social Justice School to provide opportunities for dance education, cultural engagement, and mentorship during the pandemic and beyond. The Social Dance for Social Justice School will offer three free programs: Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ “Every Body Move” program, which promotes social change by serving at-risk youth and families with limited access to arts training; an online “Social Dance for Social Distance” series, offering lectures and courses in movement and dance; and a mentorship program for students and emerging artists.