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About Carol Brown
Carol Brown is an interdisciplinary choreographer working with practices of dance, music, image, place and architecture. A Pākeha (European New Zealander) of Irish descent, she was born in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, Te Wai Pounamu, Aotearoa NZ and is based in Naarm, Melbourne, Australia, on the lands of the Kulin Nations. Carol Brown’s work explores the cracks between art forms and the possibilities for dance as an interdiscipline within the geopolitical present. Working in sustained collaborations, she evolves dialogues and makes dances through experimenting in diverse situations and sites. Asking vital questions of space, belonging, agency and environment, Carol continuously evolves and evokes corporeal and incorporeal modes of enquiry that seek to give something back to the world through the movement of thought within an environment of care.
Troubling the distinction between when a dance begins and ends, Carol’s research expands the dance field through transdisciplinary and multi modal methods that result in live performances, screen dance works, curated events, performance lectures and published writings. Dancing on rooftops, at building sites and weather stations, as well as on stages and screens, Carol Brown Dances catalyzes connection and consideration of relations between people, places and presence. Through a visceral poetics arising from the fugitive knowledges of bodies, Carol Brown Dances strives to open alternative perspectives and enact sensory becomings that are politically aware engaging audiences in imaginative journeys. Formerly a student of the doyenne of Modern Expressive Dance Theatre in Aotearoa NZ, the late Shona Dunlop-MacTavish MBE, Carol danced with Dunedin Dance Theatre in Aotearoa NZ. After completing a History Honours degree at Otago University she left New Zealand for Europe and North America where she continued her studies in contemporary dance and choreography.
Troubling the distinction between when a dance begins and ends, Carol’s research expands the dance field through transdisciplinary and multi modal methods that result in live performances, screen dance works, curated events, performance lectures and published writings. Dancing on rooftops, at building sites and weather stations, as well as on stages and screens, Carol Brown Dances catalyzes connection and consideration of relations between people, places and presence. Through a visceral poetics arising from the fugitive knowledges of bodies, Carol Brown Dances strives to open alternative perspectives and enact sensory becomings that are politically aware engaging audiences in imaginative journeys. Formerly a student of the doyenne of Modern Expressive Dance Theatre in Aotearoa NZ, the late Shona Dunlop-MacTavish MBE, Carol danced with Dunedin Dance Theatre in Aotearoa NZ. After completing a History Honours degree at Otago University she left New Zealand for Europe and North America where she continued her studies in contemporary dance and choreography.
Carol completed an MA in Dance Studies and her PhD, ‘Inscribing the Body: Feminist Choreographic Practices’ (University of Surrey 1995) was one of the first practice led dance doctorates in the world. Her full-length solo ‘The Anatomy of Reason’ subsequently toured throughout New Zealand and Europe and led to Carol being invited to become the first woman Choreographer in Residence at The Place, London’s premier dance house. Together with her partner, the composer and sound artist Russell Scoones, Carol developed Carol Brown Dances whilst in Residence at The Place in 1999.
Since the durational performance Shelf Life (South East Dance Commission 1999; Roma Europa 2000) made with visual artist Esther Rolinson, Carol has been at the forefront of developments in dance-architecture, a hybrid field that combines the disciplines of choreography, design and architectural practice through performance events that often incorporate new technologies. Dance-architecture events made with performance designer Dorita Hannah include the Tower of Touch for Prague Quadrenniale Heart of the Senses (Prague 2003), Her Topia for British Council and Isadora and Raymond Duncan Centre for Dance (Athens, Greece 2005) and Tongues of Stone with STRUT (Perth Dancing City 2011). With Mette Ramsgard-Thomsen, architect of virtual environments, Carol made SeaUnSea (Dance Umbrella 2006), and The Changing Room (Dance Umbrella 2003); and with Uwe Rieger and Yinan Liu (Open Media Lab, University of Auckland), she choreographed and toured Singularity (Ars Electronica 2017).
Carol has worked as a choreographer with many dance companies including Scottish Dance Theatre, Verve, EDGE, Subcircle, Group Motion, New Zealand Dance Company and Touch Compass and her work has been funded by Arts Council England, South East Dance, London Arts Board, Creative New Zealand, Asia New Zealand and the British Council.
Awards for her choreography include the prestigious Jerwood Prize, the Ludwig Forum International Prize for Innovation and a NESTA Dream Time Award. Carol was the recipient of an Arts Humanities Research Board Fellowship in the Performing Arts (University of Roehampton 2001-2004).
As an artist-scholar Carol’s work straddles academic and professional contexts. She has previously been a lecturer in Dance and Choreography at the University of Surrey; visiting lecture in Dance and Politics at the University of Brighton; Reader in Choreography at Roehampton University; Associate Professor in Dance and director of Choreographic Research Aotearoa at The University of Auckland. Currently Carol is Professor of Choreography and Head of Dance at Victoria College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne.
As an artist-scholar Carol’s work straddles academic and professional contexts. She has previously been a lecturer in Dance and Choreography at the University of Surrey; visiting lecture in Dance and Politics at the University of Brighton; Reader in Choreography at Roehampton University; Associate Professor in Dance and director of Choreographic Research Aotearoa at The University of Auckland. Currently Carol is Professor of Choreography and Head of Dance at Victoria College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne.