08-13-19 | Songs for Listening | Camille A. Brown
Choreographer & educator, Camille A. Brown picked tunes for Tuesday, August 13 at Songs for Listening. Camille's award-winning choreography reclaims the cultural narrative of African American identity. Her bold work taps into both ancestral stories and contemporary culture to capture a range of deeply personal experiences.
Some quick notes on Camille’s selections:
Camille just finished work on 'Once: The Musical', so chose 3 of her favorite tunes from that show.
She described her rationale for the other two selections:
'Defying Gravity' from 'Wicked'
"Significance for me: Follow your spirit and take a chance. Believe that you can fly "
'So Much Better' from 'Legally Blonde'
"Significance for me: When something we never thought we could live without goes away, it makes space for things we never imagined "
Camille is a 4x Princess Grace Award winner, a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award winner, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient & TED Fellow, among others. Her work has been commissioned by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadenco!, and Urban Bush Women, amongst others.
Currently, Camille is performing her new work 'ink', the final installment of the company’s trilogy about culture, race, and identity. 'ink' follows the Bessie Award-winning 'Mr. TOL E. RAncE' (2012), and Bessie-nominated 'BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play' (2015).
In addition to her work for the concert dance stage, Camille maintains a robust career choreographing for Broadway, theater, and television. She was nominated for a Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award for her choreography on 'Choir Boy'. She was the choreographer for the Emmy winning special, 'Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert' and the Tony winning revival of 'Once On This Island' on Broadway; for her work on that show, she received Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Chita Rivera award nominations. She is the choreographer for 'Much Ado About Nothing', directed by Kenny Leon and 'Once The Musical', as well as 'Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom', directed by George C. Wolfe for Netflix and The Metropolitan Opera’s 'Porgy & Bess'.
Her TED-Ed talk, 'A Visual History of Social Dance in 25 Moves', has over 15 million views on Facebook.
'Falling Slowly' from 'Once: A New Musical'
'Defying Gravity' from 'Wicked'
'Gold' from 'Once: A Musical'
'So Much Better' from 'Legally Blonde: The Musical'
'If You Want Me' from 'Once: A New Musical'
