Carolyn Brown (born September 26, 1927) is an American dancer, choreographer, and writer. She is best known for her work as a founding member of the

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

Dance Company.

Biography

Coming from a dancing family in

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 census. Fitchburg is home to Fitchburg State University as well as 17 public and private e ...

, Carolyn (Rice) Brown studied with her mother, Marion Rice in Fitchburg. Brown was a product of the Denishawn School and graduated in philosophy from Wheaton College in 1950. After attending a masterclass with Cunningham in Denver in 1951, she decided to pursue dance full-time and moved to New York to continue her studies at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

. She also studied with Cunningham and became one of the founding members of his company, which was born at

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...

in North Carolina in the summer of 1953. She was the most important female dancer in Cunningham's company for the next twenty years and danced in 40 of his works, often collaborating with Cunningham and John Cage in the creative process. She created a role in Cage's ''Theatre Piece'' (1960) and on pointe in Robert Rauschenberg's first dance work ''Pelican'' (1963). A dancer of great purity and virtuosity, she was considered the ideal Cunningham interpreter. In the early days of the company, she was married to composer

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since� ...

. Later, she formed a long partnership with photographer James Klosty. Her own choreography includes ''Car Lot'' (1968), ''As I Remember It'', a solo in homage to Shawn (

Jacob's Pillow Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives a ...

, 1972), ''Bunkered for a Bogey'' (1973), ''House Party'' (1974), ''Circles'' (1975), and ''Balloon II'' (Ballet-Théâtre Contemporain, 1976). Upon retirement in 1973 she took up teaching. She also continues to work with the Cunningham company as an artistic consultant. She is a member of the Cunningham Dance Foundation Board of Directors, and has worked as a freelance choreographer, filmmaker, writer, lecturer, and teacher. She has been awarded the ''Dance Magazine'' Award, five

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

grants, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Her writing has been published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''Dance Perspectives'', ''

Ballet Review ''Ballet Review'' was a print publication which covered all aspects of dance. It was published by the non-profit Dance Research Foundation, Inc. While its name says "ballet," it also covered modern dance, contemporary dance, other choreography, an ...

'', and the ''

Dance Research Journal Congress on Research in Dance was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and worldwide that was founded in 1964 and then merged in 2017 with the Society of Dance History Scholars to form the Dance Studies Associati ...

''. She lives in Millbrook, New York.

Memoir

In 2007, Brown published her memoir ''Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham'', which tells the story of her career, of the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and of the two artists at its center — Merce Cunningham and John Cage.

References

External links

Archive film of Carolyn Brown performing Banjo in 1955 at Jacob's Pillow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Carolyn 1927 births Living people American choreographers Wheaton College (Massachusetts) alumni