DavidPFranceTV INTERVIEW #12
CHRISTAL BROWN
Choreographer, Educator, Performer, Professor, Mother, Life Mastery Consultant, Disciple of Christ
Chair, Dance Department, Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont USA
https://christalbrown.com
http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/dance/faculty
For his 12th interview, David speaks with Christal Brown, Choreographer, Educator, Performer, Mother, Life Mastery Consultant, Disciple of Christ, Associate Professor and Chair of the Dance Department at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont USA.
During this conservation, we cover many topics: Christal's start in dance, her upbringing and college days in North Carolina, as well as her professional, performance and teaching career.
Christal is a native of Kinston, North Carolina, and received her BFA in dance and minor in business from the University of NC at Greensboro. Upon graduation, Brown went on to tour nationally with Chuck Davis' African-American Dance Ensemble and internationally with Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks. Immediately following those experiences, Brown performed with and managed Gesel Mason Performance Projects while apprenticing with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, Maryland. Upon relocating to New York Brown, apprenticed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company before finding a home with Urban Bush Women, where she spent three seasons as a principal performer, community specialist and apprentice program coordinator.
Aside from performing, Brown is the Founding Artistic Director of INSPIRIT, a performance ensemble and educational conglomerate dedicated to bringing female choreographers together to collaborate and show new work, expanding the views of women of all ages, and being a constant source of inspiration to its audience as well as members. Founded in 2000, INSPIRIT has been honored to show work at Aaron Davis Hall, St. Mark's Church, Joyce Soho, The Lincoln Theater of Washington, D.C., and various other venues across the country.
Combining her athleticism, creativity, love for people, and knack for teaching, Brown continues to teach and create works that redefine the art of dance and the structure of the field.
From Christal's Website:
Creating, Committing to, and Practicing our Best Selves
I am 41 years old, a woman of faith, and a single parent. I am also an entrepreneur and professor, and for the last 31 years of my life, I have been a dancer. My career as a dancer has given me the skills to create beauty and meaning through movement. While most people only see the outcome of my work through the performance, the true work lies in the creation, verification, and rehearsal of the ideas I want to convey. The performance is merely a hint of the process of discovery I’ve undergone.
Creation
Whether we assign ourselves the title of artist or not, we are all creative beings. Whether we use our creative energy to solve problems, bring people together, or manage a household, we all have a unique way of utilizing our gifts. As a dancer/choreographer, I develop ideas into movement, and then I use that language to illuminate important concepts and ideas. Although audiences may not completely understand my movement, that does not deter me from moving. In fact, my desire to communicate my concept urges me to move with deeper clarity, intention, and intelligence. In order to achieve my goal of communication, I need to look at the concept I am trying to express from as many vantage points as possible in order to verify my perspective.
