Camille A. Brown, the renowned artistic director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, is partnering with the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire for a Juneteenth Celebration event. Camille A. Brown & Dancers was founded by Ms. Brown in 2006 and has received critical acclaim, including a Bessie award. Ms. Brown herself has been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, such as the 2021 ISPA/International Society for the Performing Arts’ Distinguished Artist Award, the 2020 Dance Magazine Award, and the 2020 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Choreography.
Throughout her career, Camille A. Brown has achieved notable accomplishments, including being a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, a five-time Princess Grace Award winner, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient, a TED Fellow, and a Doris Duke Artist Award recipient. Her choreographic work has been commissioned by esteemed companies like Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Urban Bush Women, Complexions, Ballet Memphis, and Hubbard Street II. In fact, her piece “City of Rain” was incorporated into the Ailey Repertory in December 2019.
Beyond dance, Camille A. Brown has also made contributions to theater, TV, and film. Her theater credits include the Tony and Drama Desk-nominated production “Choir Boy,” the Tony award-winning Broadway revival of “Once On This Island” (earning Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Chita Rivera nominations), and “Toni Stone” (earning Drama Desk and Lortel nominations). She has worked on the Emmy award-winning NBC production of “Jesus Christ Superstar Live,” the Audelco-winning “Much Ado About Nothing,” the film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and the television series “Harlem.” Notably, she served as the choreographer for the 1619 Project docuseries.
In the realm of opera, Camille A. Brown made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the choreographer for “Porgy & Bess” in 2019. She made history at the Metropolitan Opera as its first Black director of a mainstage production with Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Additionally, in April 2022, she made history once again by directing and choreographing the Broadway production of “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.” This achievement marked the first time in 65 years that a Black woman has held both the director and choreographer roles for a Broadway show. Her production of “for colored girls…” received 7 Tony Award nominations, including two for Brown herself for Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography.
The show, directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown, will take place at The Historic Theater located at 28 Chestnut Street in Portsmouth, NH, on Sunday, June 18, 2023, at 4:00 PM. It is a collaboration between Camille A. Brown and the musicians and members of Camille A. Brown & Dancers.