E59 Camille A. Brown: For Colored Girls.

About the Guest:

Today’s episode is with award-winning choreographer + director Camille A. Brown.

Do you know Camille? You know Camille. You may recognize her work, on Broadway in Once On This Island or on television choreographing Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! Camille’s work is an ode to reclamation and staying connected to ancestral ties with her deep passion to empower Black bodies by allowing them to tell their own stories. Camille is literally history in the making. In 2021 she became the first Black artist to direct a mainstage production at the Metropolitan Opera, doing double-duty as co-director and choreographer. She repeated this dual act in the latest adaptation of Ntozke Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,” making her the first Black woman to Direct and Choreograph a Broadway show in 67 years.

In today’s episode, Camille reminds us just how vital resilience and listening to your own voice can be. She shares lessons from rejection and struggle and encourages us to be ourselves regardless of the stakes.

Key Links:

Darius Barnes - Dancer + Choreographer

Fire Shut Up in My Bones - Camille A. Brown performed at the Met Opera

DeVore Dance Center, founded by Choreographer + Dancer Carolyn DeVore

Ronald K. Brown/ EVIDENCE, A Dance Company

Roger Jeffrey - School of Dance - George Mason University

Key Readings:

Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora by Joanna Dee Das

Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion by Susan Manning

Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance by Jennifer Dunning

What to Listen to:

Mo’ Better Blues - Branford Marsalis Quartet (feat. Terence Blanchard)