African-American social dance: Tap, Jazz, Modern, and Hip-Hop.

Direct from NYC, award winning dancer and choreographer Camille A. Brown presents ink, a celebration of African-American dance that explores race, culture, and Identity.

Watch the trailer

Watch Camille A. Brown’s TED talk, A Visual History of Social Dance in 25 Moves here.

“Rousing and incisive… superbly danced” – The New York Times

Featuring live music, the performance explores the rituals, gestural vocabulary, and traditions that remain ingrained within the lineage of the African Diaspora. Uniting in an examination of self-empowerment, Black love, brotherhood, exhaustion and resilience, community and fellowship.

“In an opening solo, Ms. Brown — an exceptionally precise and powerful dancer looks like she is stirring a pot, introducing gestures that recur with different meanings throughout the work. One second, she’s an African griot miming stories, the next she’s a hip – hop D.J. spinning records.” – The New York Times

Meet Camille A. Brown & Dancers

In collaboration with Music Director Allison Miller, percussionist Wilson Torres, violinist Juliette Jones, and composer/pianist Scott Patterson, ink, is the final installation of Brown’s dance theatre trilogy about identity (along with “Mr. TOL E. RAncE”- 2012, “BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play” – 2015). Together, using the rhythms and sounds of traditional African and handmade instruments as its center, the work travels through time with elements of Blues, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Swing. This musical landscape embodies its own storytelling. The movement is an amalgamation of African-American social dance, African, Tap, Jazz, Modern, and Hip-Hop. Through self-empowerment, Black love, brotherhood, exhaustion and resilience, community and fellowship, ink depicts the pedestrian interactions of individuals and relationships as grounds for accessing one’s innate super powers and finding liberation.