Ms. D. Brown's Biography
Ms. D. Brown in her home state of R.I.
Ms. D. Brown with past dance students and the Via Danza Co. members at a performance.
Ms. D. Brown performing at NYU with fellow dance educator Heresia Hayes in the work of Brittany Kildare.
Ms. D. Brown performing in the work of Danielle Ekwerekwu.
Ms. Brown is the full time Artistic Director of the Dance Program at I.S. 234 W.A. Cunningham Intermediate School in South Brooklyn. From 2006-2016, she taught and developed dance curriculum for young dancers in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. Originally from Rhode Island, Ms. Brown studied Modern Dance with Elizabeth Spatz, Kathy Nicoli, and Heather Ahern , Jazz & Contemporary Dance with Gina Rizzo, Ballet with Helene Scheff, dramatic and comedic acting with Wendy Overly and Constance Crawford, and danced and performed with Dance Planet directed by Doug and Derek Perry.
Ms. Brown holds a B.S. in Consumer Studies, from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where she continued her study of Dance and Theatre with Billbob Brown, Ching (Hosier) Chung, Julie Nelson and the UMass Theatre Guild. She later traveled to live and study the Spanish language and Spanish dance forms in Seville, Spain. In 2004, Ms. Brown began graduate study and received an M.A. in Dance Education/K-12 Certification at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 2006. She has been employed with RI Dance Alliance as a dance educator for the outreach program Chance to Dance, under the direction of Helene Scheff and Marty Sprague and has worked extensively with Rhode Island Youth Theatre, a non-profit theatre company, as a choreographer and/or performer.
Ms. Brown has performed in the works of Deborah Damast and Andrea Markus, the New Music and Dance Ensemble in Genoa, Italy and New York, in collaborations with New York composer/musician Jonathan Zalben, Benny Simon, Te Perez-Ceccon, SHEmotion (directed by Julie Gibson), with the Movement of the People (directed by Joya Powell), and with Moore Dance Collective (directed by Sarah Moore). In addition, Ms. Brown has had her own work performed in New York City and performed in NYU Masters/Faculty concerts, at the Apollo Theatre, and in 2023 as a featured dancer in the "Still Life" music video for the band "Zopa". Ms. Brown continues to develop her pedagogy and training in both dance and yoga, completing Anusara Yoga immersions, a 200 hour Yoga Certification with Abhaya Yoga (Brooklyn), a 70 hour Yoga Tune Up® certification training, the "Teaching Contemporary LImon" two week intensive in NYC, the Lester Horton Pedagogy Workshop at the Ailey School, the Luigi Jazz Technique Intensive in NYC, the Simonson Dance Technique Method of Teacher Training, and the Progressing Ballet Technique Level 1 Certification. She is also a participating member of the National Dance Education Organization and has presented at conferences throughout the country since 2005 and was awarded the 2015 Outstanding Dance Educator Pre-K-12 Award from NYSDEA.
