Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD)
Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD) is a Bessie Award-winning, NYC-based dance company that moves through history and contemporary stories with powerful theatricality. Recognized for blending modern, hip-hop, African, tap, and social dance, CABD creates riveting works that explore race, culture, and identity through historically informed and thought-provoking repertory.
Founded in 2006, the company is a collective of dancers, musicians, and collaborators who perform highly theatrical works, bridging Camille A. Brown’s work in theater, concert dance, and opera.
CABD has toured its repertory with live music across cities in the US, including The Kennedy Center, Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, The Apollo Theater, The Joyce Theater, ASU/Gammage, The Ahmanson Center, Juniata College, The Yard, The Egg, and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, among others.
Internationally, the company has performed at the Belfast Dance Festival and The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. CABD reaches more than 20,000 people through performances and engages over 5,000 participants annually through free community programs that celebrate African diaspora aesthetics.
In May 2020, CABD launched its Social Dance for Social Change virtual school, offering free online artist and scholar lectures alongside social dance classes led by company dancers throughout the pandemic. The program received a nomination from Broadway Black for Best Quarantine Content and reached 98,000 participants worldwide.
The company’s trilogy, which includes the Bessie-winning Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012), Bessie-nominated BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2015), and acclaimed ink (2017), was performed at The Apollo and The Joyce Theater in New York City as part of a historic two-week celebration, as well as at Duke University.
Most recently, the company’s latest work, I AM, received its world premiere at Jacob’s Pillow in 2024 and its New York premiere at The Joyce Theater in 2025. The show was selected as a New York Times Critic’s Pick and received Bessie nominations for Best Choreography and Best Sound Design.
Camille A. Brown (Artistic Director & Choreographer)
Camille A. Brown is a Black director and choreographer whose work explores ancestral and contemporary stories, capturing deeply personal experiences and cultural narratives of African American identity.
Through dance, she has built a career across stage, television, and film. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD).
Her trilogy on race, culture, and identity has received major recognition. Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012) won a Bessie Award in 2014 and received a nomination for Outstanding Revival. BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2015) was Bessie-nominated, while ink (2017) premiered at The Kennedy Center, was performed at The Apollo Theater in 2022, and received critical acclaim.
Her latest work, I AM (2024), received a Bessie Award nomination in 2025. 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 social change.
Extending CABD’s artistic vision beyond the stage, EBM offers workshops, intensives, educational experiences, public events, and celebrations for people of all abilities. Originally launched in NYC public schools, the program now offers intergenerational programs nationwide.
Broadway, Opera, Film & Television
In 2022, Brown made her Broadway directorial debut with the revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, becoming 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, as well as a nomination for Best Revival. The New York Times called the production “triumphant.”
Brown received a 2022 Drama League Award nomination for Best Direction and won the Broadway Black Award for Best Direction.
During the same season, Brown became the first Black artist at The Metropolitan Opera to direct a mainstage production, co-directing Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones alongside James Robinson. She also choreographed the production, which was included in The New York Times’ “Best Dance of 2021” list.
The production returned to The Metropolitan Opera in the 2024 spring season. Brown has also choreographed Porgy & Bess and Terence Blanchard’s Champion at The Metropolitan Opera.
Her theater work includes The Fortress of Solitude, for which she received a Lortel nomination for Outstanding Choreographer, as well as Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare in the Park, which earned her an Audelco Award for Choreography.
Her Broadway choreography credits include A Streetcar Named Desire and the Tony Award-winning musical Once on This Island. Brown has received five Tony Award nominations, including recognition for Choir Boy, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Hell’s Kitchen, and Gypsy.
For Hell’s Kitchen, she received her fourth Drama Desk nomination and won The Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography and the Audelco Award for Best Choreographer.
She is also 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 Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the Tony Awards.
Film, Television & Awards
Brown’s film and television 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 streaming on PBS. The documentary received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Short Form Documentary.
Brown has received numerous awards, including ISPA’s Distinguished Artist, The Dance Magazine Award, Emerson Collective Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Artist Award, Audelco Award, Princess Grace Statue Award, Jacob’s Pillow Award, and Kennedy Center’s Next 50.
She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2025 in recognition of her impact on the arts and her dedication to using dance as a tool for social change.
Early Training & Career
Brown began her training 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 to 2006.
Her first commission as a choreographer came from Hubbard Street II in 2002, followed by commissions from Ailey II, Urban Bush Women, Philadanco, Ballet Memphis, DanceNow Festival, and Harlemstage’s E-moves series.
In 2006, Judith Jamison invited her to choreograph for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She later performed her own work, The Groove to Nobody’s Business, as a guest artist with the company in 2008.
She also created The Evolution of a Secure Feminine (2010) and City of Rain (2019) for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Brown holds honorary doctorates from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Drew University.
Recent Work
In 2025, CABD returned to The Joyce Theater with I AM, following its successful premiere at Jacob’s Pillow in 2024 and engagements at Holy Cross University and Arizona State University.
The New York Times named the production a “Critic’s Pick” and praised Brown’s continued exploration of African diasporic dance forms.
She returned to Broadway for the revival of Gypsy, directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Audra McDonald. This marked the first time new choreography was created for a mainstream production of the show.
Her work was praised as “a brilliant stroke of choreography” by USA Today and received further recognition from The Daily Beast. Brown received her fifth Tony Award nomination and fifth Drama Desk Award nomination for her choreography.
Most recently, she directed a staged reading of Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj’s Sweet Lorraine and is developing a new commission by A.K. Payne, Mouth of Mississippi, produced by National Black Theatre.
Brown is the director and choreographer for the Broadway revival of Dreamgirls, set to open in Fall 2026.
