Camille A. Brown

Camille A. Brown is a prolific Black female director and choreographer whose work taps into both ancestral and contemporary stories to capture a range of deeply personal experiences and cultural narratives of African American identity. Through the medium of dance, she is successfully balancing careers in stage, TV, and film. She is the artistic director and founder of her company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD). Her trilogy on race, culture, and identity has won accolades: Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012) was honored with a Bessie Award in 2014 and a 2003 Bessie Award nomination for Outstanding Revival; BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2015) was Bessie-nominated; and ink (2017) premiered at The Kennedy Center, was performed at The Apollo Theater in 2022, and has received critical acclaim. In 2026, CABD will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Founded in 2014 with its flagship initiative Black Girl Spectrum, CABD’s community engagement platform, EVERY BODY MOVE (EBM), uses social dance to inspire collective action and drive social change. Extending Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ artistic vision beyond the stage, EBM fosters creativity through workshops, intensives, educational experiences, public events, and celebrations for people of all abilities. Originally launched in NYC public schools, EBM now offers intergenerational programs nationwide.  

In 2022, Brown made her Broadway directorial debut for the revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, making her the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway play since Katherine Dunham in 1955. The production received seven Tony Award nominations including Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography for Brown. The show also received a nomination for Best Revival. The New York Times proclaimed the production “triumphant.” Brown received a 2022 Drama League Award Nomination for Best Direction and the show received a nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play. Brown also received the 2023 Broadway Black Award for Best Direction. 

Within the same season, Brown became the first Black artist at The Metropolitan Opera to direct a mainstage production, co-directing alongside James Robinson on Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021), which she also choreographed. The production was included in The New York Times “Best Dance of 2021” list. Fire was triumphantly brought back to the MET again the 2024 spring season. Also at The Metropolitan Opera, she choreographed Porgy & Bess and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. Brown’s first musical for theater was The Fortress of Solitude directed by Daniel Aukin, written for stage by Itamar Moses, and with music & lyrics by Michael J. Friedman. For Fortress, she received a Lortel nomination for Outstanding Choreographer. She received the Audelco Award for Choreography for Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare in the Park. Her Broadway choreography debut was with A Streetcar Named Desire, followed by the Tony Award-winning musical, Once on This Island. Brown has been nominated for five Tony awards including for Choir Boy, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (Direction and Choreography), Hell’s Kitchen with music and lyrics written by Alicia Keys, and Gypsy. For Hell’s Kitchen, she also received her fourth Drama Desk nomination and won The Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography and the Audelco Award for Best Choreographer. She is the recipient of the Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Choreography. Her work has been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show starting Jimmy Fallon, and the Tony Awards. 

Brown’s film and TV work includes Harlem (seasons 1 & 3, Amazon Prime), the Oscar-winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix), Emmy award-winning Jesus Christ Superstar Live (NBC), New Year’s Eve in Rockefeller Center (NBC), and Google Arts & Culture (ink). Camille A. Brown: Giant Steps, co-directed by Michelle Parkerson and Shellée Haynesworth, and produced by American Masters and Firelight Media, is now streaming on PBS. The documentary was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Short Form Documentary (Film). 

Brown has received numerous awards including ISPA’s Distinguished Artist, The Dance Magazine Award, Emerson Collective Fellow, Guggenheim, Doris Duke Artist, Audelco, Princess Grace Statue Award, Jacob’s Pillow Award, and New York City Center fellow, USA Jay Franke & David Herro Fellow, TED fellow, Ford Foundation Art of Change, and Kennedy Center’s Next 50. She was honored at the New York Dance Lab Honors and received the Transformative Award from Harlemstage. 

Brown’s early training began at Bernice Johnson’s Cultural Arts Center, Devore Dance Center, and Fiorello LaGuardia High School. She received her BFA from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts. After graduation, she joined Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company, where she danced from 2001–2006. During her time with EVIDENCE, critics proclaimed Brown was “a stunner when she danced with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE” - Fjord Review; “a powerhouse dancer with expansive reach and bravura.” - Maura Keefe; and “the most startling discovery was Camille A. Brown, a pixie-ish powerhouse with the determined air of a  high priestess.” She was a guest artist with Dianne McIntyre in 2008 and Rennie Harris in 2009. 

Brown’s first commission as a choreographer was from Hubbard Street II in 2002, followed by commissions from Ailey II, Urban Bush Women, PHILADANCO!, Ballet Memphis, the DanceNow Festival, and the Harlemstage’s E-moves series, among other opportunities. In 2006, Judith Jamison invited her to choreograph on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She went on to dance in her own work (The Groove to Nobody’s Business) as a guest artist with the company in 2008 and set two more works on the company: her solo, The Evolution of a Secure Feminine in 2010 (originally choreographed in 2007) and City of Rain in 2019 (originally commissioned by The Joyce Theater in 2010). 

She holds two honorary doctorates from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Drew University respectively. 

In 2025, her company returned to The Joyce Theater with her latest work, I AM, following a successful premiere last year at Jacob’s Pillow, and engagements at Holy Cross University and Arizona State University. The New York Times stamped it as a “critic’s pick” and declared, “Brown takes her signature interweaving of African diasporic dance forms to new heights." She returned to Broadway this past November for the revival of Gypsy, directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Audra McDonald. This is the first time new choreography has been done for a main stage production. Her work was hailed as “a brilliant stroke of choreography” (USA Today) and “a consistent, inventive charm” (Daily Beast). Brown received her fifth Drama Desk Award Nomination as well as her fifth Tony Nomination for her original choreography in this production. Most recently, she directed a staged reading of Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj’s SWEET LORRAINE. The play imagines the last conversation between icons and friends James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. She is set to develop and direct a new commission by a.k. payne, Mouth of Mississippi, produced by National Black Theatre.