In the history of Broadway, there have been only seven Black female choreographers: Katherine Dunham, Mabel Robinson, Debbie Allen, Dianne McIntyre, Hope Clarke, Marlies Yearby and Camille A. Brown. Of those seven choreographers, three have received the prestigious Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography since the awards program began in 1947: Clarke for Jelly’s Last Jam in 1992, Yearby for Rent in 1996 and Brown for Choir Boy in 2019, for the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf in 2022, and for Hell’s Kitchen in 2024. Of those three nominees, none have (yet) received the award.
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When Brown was nominated for a Tony Award for Choir Boy in 2019, it had been twenty-three years since a Black female choreographer had been honored with a nomination. When she directed and choreographed the revival of for colored girls in 2022, it had been sixty-seven years since a Black woman had directed and choreographed a show on Broadway (the only other time being when Katherine Dunham did so for Katherine Dunham and Her Company in 1955).
The list of Tony Award-winning choreographers is dominated by—no surprise—white men; there have been only eight female and nine Black male winners throughout the years.
You might be thinking I’ve gone off track. Isn’t this supposed to focus on Camille A. Brown? On Hell’s Kitchen? Yes, but I cannot tell you the story of how Brown became the choreographer for the Spring’s blockbuster musical Hell’s Kitchen, and how she earned her fourth Tony Award nomination for her work there, without first telling you about those dates, those numbers, those little bits of history.
So, here they are: 1947. Seven. Three. Zero. Got it? Then, let’s begin.
Brown was born in Jamaica, Queens, to parents who weren’t dancers but loved dancing. Her father, a retired parole officer, taught salsa lessons on the side. Her mother, a retired social worker, loved musicals and took her daughter to the library so they could watch her favorites: Sweet Charity, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Dreamgirls.
As a child, Brown tried many activities—swimming, gymnastics, music—but dance won out. It lit her up inside and allowed her to express herself without having to speak in public, which she was afraid to do, as she had been teased for having “a very small voice.” She began her training at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and the DeVore Dance Center, learning ballet, tap, African, jazz, hip hop, modern dance and pointe. Then she went on to study at the famed LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
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The dance studio had always been a safe and joyful space for Brown, but as she got older that changed. “This whole idea of the ‘ideal........